New Beginnings: Second Start
by ShadowVulpix
Summary: With two of the family gone and secrets revealed, Alex and her group have even more to deal with. Battling gyms and refining powers, much of their journey has become much more dangerous than before. Can they stand up to the test it brings, or will their second chance shatter and fall? Sequel to New Beginnings. T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello guys, and welcome to the second story arc of New Beginnings! Welcome to…**

 **P &T: Second Start!**

 **SV: Thank you. If you haven't read the first one, I recommend that you go back and read that.**

 **P: You can find it on the profile.**

 **T: It has a lot of things that you'll need to know, so remember to read it.**

 **SV: I still don't own Pokemon, and hope you enjoy the first chapters!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1.**

* * *

I stepped out of the tent. We were still in the clearing we had found yesterday, since none of us could be bothered to continue on. It was almost midnight, from my hasty glance skywards, so I sighed and walked out. I headed over to the trees, where the white flash wouldn't bother anyone, and transformed. I floated up into the branches, then flew above it all and upwards. I flew near to the clouds before I had the presence of mind to stop and make a small air bubble. I psychically compacted a cloud together and landed, growing a little in size, from two feet to around five, and looked over the edge.

From up here, I could see just about anything. I scanned the area below me, picking out the small, psychic lights of our camp, and the bright lights of both Celadon and Saffron City's. It was surprising to see the amount of lights still on at midnight. I turned, looking over towards the ocean. I fancied I could see a small island in the distance, with a little white building that seemed to be under construction.

"I wonder how they're doing…" I mused quietly. The small ring on my back flickered blue as I changed type, in an attempt to let my Flying type power take over supporting the cloud. I'd read that it could be done, but it didn't work, and I yelped quietly as I fell though the water vapour. "Maybe next time I should use Water type!" I stopped myself in midair, freezing cold, before flashing through Fire type to get rid of the cold, then back to Flying. "Not doing it any time soon, that's for-sure?" I hesitated, spotting a small speck of blue light pop out of a clearing near our own. Blinking, I dropped down slowly, readying a teleport just in case.

I needn't have bothered. Once I got down, I saw Ash, shaking his head before focusing. A small teal blue light flickered in his hands, slowly growing in size, until it was about the size I normally used for my Judgement attacks. It wobbled and flickered, before finally destabilising with a flash. I put up a small shield around us both, and Ash blinked.

"Alex?"

' _Hi.'_ I waved my front leg and lowered the shield.

"What're you doing up? It's kinda late." He asked, as I settled on a branch nearby, again at two feet.

' _Says you.'_ I laughed. ' _Went for a bit of a fly.'_

"Fair enough. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd do something productive." He gestured around the area. "It's sort of working. I can get the sphere up most times, it's just a question of when it destabilises."

' _Well, at least you're not working with Judgement.'_ I chuckled, remembering our practise area. ' _That was a lot of holes.'_

"Judgement's the attack that explodes into meteors, right?" He checked.

' _Yup.'_ I nodded. ' _Want a lift?'_

"What do you mean?" He looked faintly nervous.

' _Well, clouds are always good for sightseeing.'_ I offered. ' _I won't let you fall, I promise.'_

"...Sure." I floated down to ground level, landing next to him before going back to the five feet I had been.

' _You can hold onto the ring if you want.'_ I told him, belatedly swapping types back to normal. ' _I'll keep a bubble up anyway, but I don't mind.'_

"Ok." He wrapped an arm around the edge of the ring, and I floated upwards a few feet, forming a small, dim bubble of psychic power around us.

' _One Arceus elevator going right up!'_ I announced, quickly rising towards the cloud I'd been sat on previously. Ash was shivering, and I'd almost swapped to Fire again before I realised that wasn't the issue. I stopped and looked around. He was holding tightly to the ring with his eyes closed, and taking sharp breaths that Pokemon hearing easily picked up. I nudged him gently. ' _Hey, don't worry. I'm not going to let you fall. You're safe. I've done this with Leo before, and he has with me. Nothing's going to happen.'_ He reluctantly opened his eyes, and almost glanced down. I pulled his head up with a careful burst of Psychic. ' _Don't go looking down, it'll only worry you even more. We're nearly there, then I'll land. Ok?'_

"Sure." He shivered again. I quickly ascended the last couple of metres to the cloud, and solidified it again before landing. "Sorry. I don't like heights much."

' _I had noticed.'_ I said sarcastically. ' _Sorry. I probably should have thought.'_

"Don't worry."

' _Anyway, look this way.'_ I created a small Judgement in front of us, making a little golden-gray glow that lit up the area. It floated forwards, and I rose a metre up to follow, with Ash watching around my head. I pointed out the island I had noticed before, where I thought I could see Rosa's house.

"What is it?"

' _Hold on.'_ I said. _Time for another experiment._ I organised a small Light Screen in front of us both, angling it so the screen reflected the island, showing it closer up. ' _See it now?'_

"I think so." He squinted. "Isn't that the island we were on with Rosa and the Lugia twins?"

' _Yep. If you look carefully, you can kinda see the hotel they wanted to build.'_ I moved the screen slightly. ' _See?'_

"Yeah, I do. Looks pretty cool." We watched for a few seconds before I dispelled the Light Screen and moved slightly.

' _We used to do this pretty often, once.'_ I told my passenger, looking up at the sky. ' _We compact the cloud psychically, so we can sit up here. Some Flying and Water types can do it naturally, but we've never learned.'_

"Sounds like it was fun."

' _It was. We don't do it often anymore, too much of a risk. This is the first time I've bothered since we started our journey together. It's been even longer since I've done it with a passenger.'_

"Well, it's nice to see up here." Ash slid off my back, landing on the cloud. "Don't drop this please."

' _Don't worry.'_ I said absently, still looking at the sky. Specifically, a fairly large star in the sky, quite close to us all. ' _If I did, I'd catch you anyway.'_

"Thanks for the reassurance." He walked, slightly unsteadily, across the cloud, and peered over the edge. "This is ridiculously high up."

' _Yeah. There's an air bubble around us, in case you were wondering.'_

"Why can't I see it? I assume you're using Psychic for it, right?"

' _It's like the illusion field. You know, the one you broke before? It's keeping air trapped in it, but you can't see it. Helps when you want to admire the scenery without any obstructions.'_

"Thanks for that." Ash said, walking back. "This is really high up, though."

' _We're sitting on a_ cloud _, Ash.'_ I laughed. ' _Why are you surprised?'_

"I dunno." He sat down, and almost fell straight through. I grabbed him with Psychic and pulled him onto my back again.

' _Careful. It's not completely solid, just compacted. You can still fall through.'_

"I suppose you're floating as well, yeah?"

' _Sorta. It's weird.'_ I glanced around, finally ripping my sight from that star, and caught sight of the moon instead. ' _We should probably get some sleep. Ready to drop?'_

"Please don't tell me we're going skydiving." He mumbled, glancing down worriedly.

' _Of course not. If you want to, then sure thing. But not right now.'_ I smiled back at him.

"Thanks for that." He patted my head. "Quick question first? You don't have to answer."

' _Shoot.'_

"What's that star you were looking at? That huge one." I glanced up instinctively, before facing my friend again.

' _It's a long story, but the short version is that it's home.'_

"Home?"

' _Yeah. It's where Bella and Amy are right now. I guess I can't help wanting to be there with them.'_

"Can we back up a bit? What do you mean about it being your home?"

' _Long story. More a history lesson, to be honest. I'll tell you another time. Preferably when it's not one in the morning.'_

"Alright. Down we go, then?"

' _Yep.'_ I released my Psychic hold on the cloud, then the illusioned air bubble around it, before forming a new one and dropping. Ash held tightly onto the ring, and I chuckled. ' _You ok back there?'_

"Sure!" He called back. I slowed down, and halted about three feet off the ground in the clearing Ash had been in before. He slid off, and I landed, swapping back to human again. "But tomorrow, mind telling me what it's all about?"

"Sure. When we take a break to do Aura, I'll put up a psychic privacy field or something." I shrugged. "Never actually done that, but I can try my best to do it. That, or we can just world it instead."

"No worldlet, if you don't mind." Ash said. "I don't feel like it's a good idea."

"Fair enough. Is there a reason for it?"

"No." He frowned. "It just feels like something's going to go wrong if we leave."

"Oh?" I asked, confused. "Ever had this sort of feel before?"

"No, just now. Think it's something to with Aura?"

"It might be." I pondered. "We don't really have one, except for the permanent shield we use for warnings, but I know Aura can be much more sensitive to changes like that." Ash looked ready to reply, but I cut him off with a small burst of telepathy. ' _Nearly back now, so we'll need to be quiet to avoid waking them up.'_

"Isn't there a shield?" He asked, whispering.

' _Yep, but it's mine, so the only person to be alerted will be me. No need to worry.'_

"Ok." We silently walked back in, and with a non verbal goodnight, went back to bed.

* * *

 **Chapter 2.**

* * *

I stretched, smiling. A small popping sound alerted me to the fact that my shield had dropped, and I frowned. _Shouldn't have done that yet. Maybe it's later than I thought._ Looking out, I saw that was mostly correct, since it looked to be about ten. None of the others were awake either, or if they were they weren't in the camp. _Well, I can check that._ I closed my eyes again, spreading Psychic senses instead of normal ones. The three Pokemon that slept outside were there, and the much more vibrant teal colour of Ash's now wielded Aura. Leo's Psychic imprint, flickering between different colours… and no Crystal.

"Huh." I said aloud. "I wonder where she went."

' _ **She went out, I think.'**_ Spark said, crawling out. ' _ **Dunno really, since I was asleep. Heard her leave, though.'**_

"Right, thanks." I replied. "Morning, by the way."

' _ **Morning.'**_ She stretched, and sat next to me. ' _ **Think we're doing anywhere today?'**_

"Don't think so. Let's see…" I counted off. "We did Ash's Pokemon yesterday, so that's done. There's training, but I'm not sure how much we need. I still need to speak with Deku," I winced. "Need to stop putting that off. And the last thing is probably Aura with Ash."

' _ **Which we could do on the road.'**_ Spark finished. ' _ **So, no problem.'**_

"There is." She looked up at me, and I frowned. "Ash seems to feel we'll run into a problem if we leave today. Aura's sometimes a bit more sensitive to this stuff, so I'd say we stay. Plus, I'd rather talk to Deku here, rather than elsewhere."

' _ **Fine. Would you like one of us to join you?'**_

"I think… no." I shook my head. Before I finished explaining, Ky slipped out the tent.

' _ **Hey guys.'**_ She said.

"Hi." I patted her. "Say, if either of you two don't mind, I'd like to go talk to Deku soon. I'd like you to stay here, ok?"

' _ **Sure thing.'**_ Ky yawned. ' _ **When'll it be?'**_

"I'll take Ash to the clearing over thataway," I pointed over to where I'd ran into Ash the night before. "And he can get a bit more Aura stuff done, while I talk with Deku."

"Sounds like a plan." I jumped, turning sharply to face Ash and Pikachu.

"Don't do that!" I yelped.

"Not my fault you're unobservant this morning." He chuckled, sitting down. "Anyway, what's up?"

"Talking about Deku. Though, I suppose you already knew that."

"Sorta. Though, I do know you wanted to talk to him while I work on Aura."

"That's about the size of it, yes." I levitated my bag out of the tent, looking for the note that had been on the book.

"I thought Bella took that?" Ash asked.

"She took the book, yeah. She passed the Pokeballs over to me, and the note too. Thought it'd be easier to explain to Deku with that."

"Well, that makes sense." As we spoke, Pikachu, Spark and Ky wandered off, presumably to have a chat without forcing a translation. Or maybe to stop me listening, I don't know.

"We'll wait for Crystal to get back, then we'll borrow Cobalt and we can head out."

"Where'd Crystal go?"

"Apparently she went out earlier. I assume she went flying, since I'm pretty sure we'd all know if she was teleporting close enough."

"Actually…" Ash looked curious. "You said you can tell if someone's teleporting near you, how come you didn't pick out George yesterday?"

"Lack of focus, lack of familiarity, and the amount of Psychic energy from Saffron." I listed off. "I don't really know that many hybrids very well, honestly. I know George, but the main reason I've noticed him before is because his pattern shows up against just about anything."

"Pattern?"

"It's what we see with Psych Scans. You know, that thing that lets us see Psychic energy?" I waited for his nod before continuing. "I can see the different patterns in people. I mentioned about the first time I saw human patterns, since they're almost purely one colour, with no sign of power. Psychic's always have pink or light purple, Aura seems to be different shades of blue, but most human shades are literally anything. Fainter, normally, but that's actually why I didn't notice you."

"Did you not know about Aura, or was it just because humans have so many shades?"

"Bit of both, honestly." I admitted. "Human patterns can be quite literally any colour, but they're rarely fused with others."

"Say, you mentioned Aura Sight before, right? Do you think it can do the same stuff that your Psych Scans can do?"

"Probably." I frowned. "I'm not really the person to ask, honestly. Cobalt knows more, obviously."

"Well, when Crystal gets back, I'll ask about it." He decided. "I want to see some of the stuff that you guys can. It sounds really interesting."

"It does look really good. Whenever we camp, we actually need to be careful at how much we look around. The number of clashing and mixing colours gets a bit confusing."

"Really?" Ash looked excited. "What does it look like?" I blinked, surprised at his enthusiasm, then shook myself. _Alex, you're talking about a world that, as of yet, he has no way of accessing. Of course he'll be excited._ I closed my eyes, looking around, giving a description of each.

"Over there, with our Pokemon, is two bright yellows and one dark blue or purple. You look like a teal colour, and Leo's tent is a mix. Mine looks the same, and it looks like all the type patterns mixed. Bella would be pink and green, while Amy is just plain pink, like her form as a Mew. Crystal is an ice blue and sky blue, with streakings of pink that show her Psychic affinity, despite it not being a main type." I finished, looking at Ash with a smile. "It looks pretty cool." I reached up towards the small set of clay 'plates' that went with my other form, brushing against each.

"Man, I need to talk to Cobalt about getting Aura Sight working, fast." He grinned back. "That does sound really cool." He sighed. "Wish you could teach me how it works."

"Actually…" I thought. "I might be able too."

"How?" He perked up.

"Well, the way I do Psych Scans, I focus on my Psychic power, in the same way I would to use Psychic, then focus on using that to look around."

"Huh. Why close your eyes?"

"It blocks out normal light, so it's not so distracting." I replied. "So, what do you say? Fancy giving it a go?"

"Sure." I stood, and offered my hand to help him up.

"Well, let's not do it here. You might dazzle yourself." I started walking to the clearing Ash had been using before I'd arrived the night before, the Adept following behind. "Changed your mind about the skydiving, by the way?"

"Nope." He replied quickly. "No thanks. Not unless you've earned the ability to clone yourself overnight." I laughed quietly.

"Suit yourself. I'll get you sometime, though. Either skydiving or ocean exploration, it'll be your pick." We reached the clearing again, and I sat down, bading him to follow. "Now, ready to give it a go?"

"Sure." He sat in front of me, closing his eyes. "Can you explain your method again?"

"Sure. I focus on the power wells I use when using an attack, or even just for telepathy. Then, I focus on making that see for me, instead of looking myself." I explained. "From there, I can pick out the patterns of other hybrids, of Pokemon, and of people. However, the environment doesn't show up, so while it's more useful to find people hiding in forests, working on tracking those people is harder, since it's more likely I'd run into trees or fall over something." He grinned, chuckling, then went silent. I leaned back, knowing he was focused on using his Aura. _Honestly, I'm surprised he's as good as he is. Considering we only picked up Aura training a few days back, he's really learned fast._ I smiled slightly. _Suppose it's enthusiasm._ I sat back, ready for a long wait until he figured it out.

* * *

It actually took less time than I would have expected. Around fifteen minutes after Ash had first gone silent, he let out an excited gasp.

"What?" I sat up, looking at him. "What's wrong?"

"I got it!" He said happily. "At least, I think I did."

"Really?" I grinned, moving over. "What's it like?"

"Blue. Lots and lots of blue." He deadpanned. "Well, shades of blue. The trees and stuff are a lighter blue, but most the world is just a dark blue." I raised an eyebrow, then remembered he couldn't see me, and replied, closing my eyes and activating a Psych Scan myself.

"Huh. That's kind of similar to mine, actually. Lots of pink, but nothing shows up in other shades. The world shows up light pink, but the only other things that show up are people and Pokemon, with the little coloured patterns."

"Yeah. Not so different after all, then." I opened my eyes as Ash turned to look at me from observing the scenery, and winced, quickly looking away. "Ouch!"

"What's up?" I asked, moving forwards.

"Nothing, just dazzled me, that's all. You show up really brightly."

"Ah." I nodded. "Right. We could probably learn to dampen that, or you can turn down how you see it, maybe?" I guessed.

"We'll talk to Cobalt about it." Ash said, finally opening his eyes again. A faint blue glow faded from his eyes, and he looked over to me. "We should head back then, huh?"

"Yeah. We've not been gone that long, but we might as well. Walk, or shall I teleport us back instead?"

"Let's just walk back." Ash decided, after a few moments. "Teleporting is fun and all, and it's definitely faster, but it makes me feel a little wobbly after we land."

"Fair enough. I think it's one of the things you get used to in time." I stood up and shrugged. "But hey, I don't mind." I held out my hand to help him up, and smiled. "Hopefully Crystal's back now."

"Yeah. There's quite a bit I want to talk with Cobalt about Aura." His eyes shone slightly with enthusiasm, and I chuckled quietly, heading back through the forested area to the adjacent clearing that our camp lay in. Once our camp came into sight, I flickered to a Psych Scan for a moment, just long enough to check for Crystal's pattern in the camp, before returning to normal.

"Come on, Crystal's back. I'll be over here for a while, just to talk with Deku. I'll meet you all back there in a bit."

"Ok." He ran ahead as I veered off to the right, a little while away from the camp.

"Right. Deku, come on out." My little shiny Ivysaur came out in a sparkle of light.

' _ **What do you need Alex?'**_ He asked, shaking out his flower. His tone turned sharp. ' _ **And what about Eve and sis? Are they alright? What happened with the Rockets? And-'**_ I raised a hand, gently cutting him off.

"Hold on, and calm down, ok dear? I'll start explaining." He took a breath and nodded. "Ok. First, we might have screwed up slightly." I saw panic flash across his face, and could only imagine what he might be thinking we messed up with, so I quickly continued. "Don't worry, it's nothing really serious. Ash knows about hybrids now, that's all."

' _ **Oh.'**_ Relief flashed across his face, but it was followed by worry. ' _ **Isn't that bad for you, though?'**_

"Eh, it could be, except there's no problem with him knowing. We were worried at first, but he's been fine about it. Actually…" I paused, thinking. "I should tell that to the rest of the team."

' _ **As in, everyone except Ky, Spark and me, right?'**_

"Jade and Tele too. They were in the last gym battle. Anyway, I'm telling you all this because Ash's team knows too, so feel free to have conversations with them, but be careful. We never know who hears us."

' _ **Alright.'**_

"Next, well… You asked about Lucia and Lucian, as well as your family." I paused, trying to find a nice way to put it, before sighing. "Well, we learned a bit about that too." I pulled the small letter out of my pocket, and unfolded it. He took it carefully, and started reading. Once he'd finished, he folded it back up and passed it over, taking a small, shuddering breath. I took the page, putting it back in my pocket, and leaned over, picking him up with a huff of effort and a small, equalising blast of Psychic. "You ok?"

' _ **Yeah… yeah… I'll be fine.'**_ He stuttered out. I gave a low, calming hum, and he pressed into my chest a little. ' _ **It's just… an odd revelation, I suppose. I still sort of hate them, given what they did. But now, I know that they did it for a reason, and not a reason they agreed with. It's a really conflicting feeling, and I really don't like it.'**_

"That's fair, honestly." I allowed. "I mean, it's nothing like how most of us felt, but I think Crystal went from 'freeze them solid and murder them' to 'slap them repeatedly' in the span of a few seconds." Deku chuckled.

' _ **Yeah.'**_ He shook his head. ' _ **What're Shadow Pokemon? The message said Bella would probably know, but...?'**_ He looked pleadingly at me.

"Sorry, I don't really know." I sighed. "I know a bit. There're Pokemon that've been locked out of themselves, and I know they appeared in Orre a while back, which Lucia mentioned. Other than that, I've got nothing. Bel's not here, either. She had to head back home with Amy and a friend of ours. She's got a book on all documented Shadow Pokemon, and the book Lucian left behind, but there's nothing else."

' _ **Oh...'**_ The leaves on his back wilted slightly, but he smiled tightly at me. ' _ **So, these Shadows that got Eve and sis made them Shadow Pokemon, then?'**_

"That's right." I patted his head. "We'll do all we can to get them back to you. I promise."

' _ **Thank you.'**_

"I'll be calling the rest of you out later, since I need to talk with everyone together about the hybrid thing, and something else. However, I'll keep the Shadow Pokemon thing between the lot of us, unless you want to say something, and I'll make sure the others don't bother you about it."

' _ **Thanks Alex.'**_ I held up the Pokeball, and he disappeared with a small smile. Standing, I went back into the camp, to find that Ash and Cobalt were talking over to one side, and the three starters were still talking.

"Hey Alex." Crystal waved.

"Howdy." I went and sat down next to them. "Where've you been?"

"Just went to fly for a bit. Went to a small form and dropped to the ocean for a while. Went to the depths and set up a glow to look around."

"Sounds like fun." Leo said. "See anything?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "Lots of underwater caves, but nothing else. Could be fun to explore when we get some spare time, but there's not really much from what I can see."

"We should go diving a bit more, honestly." I stretched. "It's fun, plus we don't need to worry about Ash anymore."

"True." Crystal sighed.

"What's bugging you?" Leo asked.

"Nothing much. It's just Melody."

"Ah." I nodded. "You want to be there to, and want to help her out, but you can't because Bella wants you to stay here."

"Pretty much." She admitted. "But I also want to stay here so I can keep an eye on you three and help out. Plus, Cobalt's needed here to help Ash out, and while I could just leave him with you, the other thing comes into effect there."

"Well, feel free to spend time in bird mode whenever you need too." I told her. "Along with heading home every now and then if you need to."

"Thanks." She laughed. "Now I've got your permission, I guess there's nothing to fear!" We all burst into laughter as the other Pokemon, along with Ash, joined us.

' _ **What's so funny?'**_ Spark asked.

"Oh, nothing much." Crystal grinned, already looking to be in much higher spirits. "Anyway Ash, how's the plan going?"

"It's ok. Still can't look around here without dazzling myself, but I think I can manage to get around that. Until then, I just can't look in your direction when using it."

' _ **It's rather odd that I never had that problem, actually.'**_ Cobalt thought. ' _ **I know they showed up brightly, but I never had a problem with it.'**_

"I guess you were just used to it already." I hazarded. "I mean, you lived in a hybird city before you came here."

' _ **True.'**_

"Anyway, is there anything else you need?" Crystal asked. "If not, why don't we get a move on to the next gym you guys need?"

"Yeah, I think I'm fine." Ash nodded. "After all, we can work on the road."

"Right then." Leo stood, psychically grabbing the tents and packing them into the bag Crystal was holding. Spark and Ky ran over to me, while Pikachu jumped to Ash's shoulder. Cobalt grinned.

' _ **Well, onwards then!'**_ He said. ' _ **I'll see what I can figure out about the intesity of the light, but you might just have to spend a lot of time in Aura Sight around the others to get used to it.'**_

"Right." Ash replied. "I'll try that."

' _ **Though, we might need to be careful. Remember, you're naturally frailer when it comes to using Aura, so try not to drain your reserves. It'll kill you.'**_

"Ok Cobalt, calm it down with the warnings." Crystal told him. "After all, I'm sure-" Suddenly, she froze, and cocked her head to the side.

"Crys?" I asked, worried. "What's wrong?"

"Shush." She said, focusing. "Didn't any of you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Ash asked, before my twin and I froze too. I focused, and felt a little Psychic tendril brush past me.

"Try focusing. You might feel it too." I told him, as the other two went silent. I scanned around with a small tendril of power, looking for the little push I'd felt before. It didn't take long for me to find it, with the others looking too, so I sent a little signal to call their Psychic feelers over, while just taking Ash's small flicker of Aura with me. Sabrina's voice washed over us, and I struggled to listen.

' _Amy, Bella, Crystal! I need help! There's a massive group of Rocket's here, they're taken over most the city! I'm trapped, even my Pokemon can't cause much of a dent to the sheer number of them! I was hoping you'd be able to assist!'_ The message broke off, and the four of us who'd heard traded worried glances. Our Pokemon looked among each other, confused, until Leo replayed the message to them.

' _ **Well would you look at that.'**_ Ky said neutrally.

' _ **Looks like it's back to Saffron for us.'**_ Cobalt added.

"Of course." Ash agreed. "I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll try and help you guys out."

"Well, you should be fine. At least you don't have a debuff." Leo winced.

' _ **Just avoid Aura Sight. It'll be pink all over.'**_ Cobalt recommended.

"Well, to fighting Team Rocket, then?" I asked, to a collection of nods.

"And hoping that we don't run into Lucia and Lucian." Crystal mentioned, to further nods of agreement from the rest of us. Spark and Pikachu swapped grins, and Cobalt cracked a smirk.

' _ **Let's go.'**_

* * *

 **AN: And straight back into the action we go for New Years!**

 **P: Really?**

 **T: Of course! Who doesn't love a bit of excitement!?**

 **SV: Plus most of my other stories start really slowly, because of the amount of exposition I need to get through. This one, being a sequel, doesn't need that, since it's in New Beginnings.**

 **P: I guess. I just didn't expect this to be so soon.**

 **T: Well, why wouldn't it be? They're right next to Saffron, after all.**

 **SV: Anyway, I'm glad to be back at work on this fic. It was great fun writing the first part, I've got so many plans for this one it's ridiculous, and the rest has more to come! Hopefully you'll all enjoy reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it, but I'll see you all next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey again!**

 **P: Let's get moving, eh?**

 **T: Well, we ended last chapter with a bang, so we might as well just get right on with it, eh?**

 **SV: Sure thing! Don't own Pokemon, let's rock.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3.**

* * *

The four of us stood outside Saffron, alongside Cobalt, the two Pikachu and Ky.

"Ready?" Crystal asked.

"Yep." I replied, dropping my gain beforehand.

"I'll try and help you guys out." Ash said, smiling.

"That's fine. We're all going in on the low side here, we'll just hope for the best." I patted his shoulder.

"Right. I'm going bird mode." Crystal shimmered, changing to Articuno. ' _Be careful. I'll try and act as air support.'_

"Just try not to drop ice on our head." Leo requested.

' _No problem. Let's rock.'_

Ash and Pikachu stood next to me and Spark, waiting to see if anything popped up. Ky had gone with Leo and Cobalt, and Crystal was flying high above, acting her role as air support. Since none of us knew what we were going into, aside from the fact that Team Rocket was here, we were all on guard.

"Spark, you got anything?" I asked quietly.

' _ **Nothing you can't see.'**_ She replied, relying on me to telepathically translate, since Ash still wasn't powerful enough to manage it in low Psychic areas, let alone high energy ones. ' _ **I think of all of us, you'd see the most, even with the Psychic power everywhere.'**_

"I probably could, but I don't want to risk it." Ash looked confused, so I elaborated. "The amount of power in the air could mess things up for me." I glanced around, mostly out of habit. "I think I can figure out where to go, simply by deduction."

"Right. What's the plan?"

"Well, with what we know of Team Rocket, they're always going for two things; Pokemon and money. Going in with a worst case scenario, Sabrina's probably captured, so she's out. We've split to cover ground, which leaves us in more vulnerable groups, but we can send out a distress signal if necessary. We also know Team Rocket use Normal and Poison types a lot, or at least the grunts do, so Fighting, Psychic and Ghost will be helpful, as well as Poison types of our own." I sighed. "We don't have much to work with, but Psychic powers will be a bit of a crutch for us to use freely. Might be possible to pass Judgement off too, so we've got a bit."

"Ok. So, they likely to be at Silph Co.?" I ran through what Bella had said about the building.

"Probably. That place'll be full of rare items and things the company's invented, and with the possibility of a Master Ball there, I'd say that's the most likely place, making it the most dangerous one."

"So what'll we do?"

"Go straight in of course. But sneakily."

' _ **Alex, this is a bad idea.'**_

"Yes, it is. That's why we're doing it in style."

"I am extremely confused." Ash blinked.

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, I'm going to see if I can drop a Judgement or something in there as soon as I can."

' _ **This is not going to go well.'**_ Pikachu opined.

' _ **Since when has anything gone well with our trainers?'**_ Spark reminded him. ' _ **It'll just get worse.'**_

' _ **Joy.'**_ I rolled my eyes.

"It can't go _that_ badly. Half Pokemon resilience, I'll be fine."

In case you're wondering, it went badly. Well, sort of. It didn't go horribly, but it went dangerously. It pretty much started when I asked Spark and Pikachu to head forwards and act as lookout. Simple, just a quick scout forwards to make sure it's safe. In truth, I don't think any of us are completely sure what happened after that in the few seconds, but most of it was panicked scrambling and running away. This resulted in us being hidden in a maintenance cupboard, praying the reflection I'd put up would work.

"Why did you think this was a good idea again?" Ash hissed, keeping his voice as low as he could.

' _Not… a… clue.'_ I winced back, struggling to keep the area-wide shield up while replying. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ash look worriedly at me.

"Are you ok?"

' _Fine.'_ I rasped back. ' _Just… stay quiet… ok?'_ My friend nodded slightly. Even with the exceptional strain I was under from trying this, I carefully pulled up enough power to look outside briefly, scanning quickly for any sign of a person outside. I could only hold up for a second or so before I started getting a massive headache from overstrain, so I pulled back with a gasp and a wince.

' _ **Alex?'**_ Spark nudged my cheek, worried. ' _ **Are you alright? What did you do?'**_

"A check." I replied, wobbling as I straightened. "I think it's safe to go now."

"Honestly, I don't care." Ash said bluntly. "Are you alright to go?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine. I'm a bit dizzy, but I'll live. Just don't expect too much of a show for a few hours at best." I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but it must have come out wrong, since all that happened was that Ash looked even more worriedly at me. "Seriously, I'll be fine. Might need to spend a good while recovering afterwards, but I should be fine to fight my way through here if we have to. I'll just be stuck praying I can pass Judgement off as something Psychic based instead."

"If you say so." Ash didn't look convinced, but still followed me as I opened the door to look around.

"Right, come on. Let's try and figure something out." I said, closing the door again.

"Well, you said I can't look around, as it'll either be too crowded or too bright." Ash replied, waving his hand with a small blue spark. "What about you? I know you've strained yourself, but could you do it if you get better?"

"I think I might, actually." I said slowly. "It depends. I might be able to do it now, or pretty soon at least. Then I'll try and track something."

"If one of the other hybrids in Team Rocket is here, you'd be able to pick them up easily, right?" I nodded. "So we could try and lock onto one of them to pick our way through."

"We could also try and see if Crystal can pick anything up." I reminded him.

"That's true." Ash admitted. "I'd forgotten we could do that."

"Telepathy is a wonderful thing." I agreed, focusing. ' _Crystal, you got anything?'_

' _I can see into the windows up near the top floor of Silph Co.'_ She replied. ' _I think I see someone in there, but I can't tell who.'_

' _Any sign of hybrid power?'_ I asked.

' _Errr… Dark and Rock dual type, and a Dark and Flying one. Not sure what the Rock one could be, but the Flying could be a Honchkrow.'_

' _Well, it's not a Tyranitar.'_ I joked. ' _There's no way one could fit into this building without it collapsing. Though, what other Rock/Dark types are there?'_

' _One we've never seen before?'_ The Ice bird guessed. ' _Anyway, other than them, just human patterns. Nothing new or familiar, aside from a notably bright pink one on a lower floor.'_

' _Sabrina?'_

' _Her, or another Psychic. Either way, they're three floors above where I think you are now, so head on up there for them.'_

' _Sure thing.'_ I pulled back from our mental conversation with a nod. "Crystal says there's a couple of powerful signals up top, a Rock/Dark and a Dark/Flying one. Other than that, a Psychic signal that might be Sabrina three floors up."

"So, go and rescue Sabrina, then what?"

"Get up top and try to drive them out, I say." I grinned, Spark rolling her eyes.

' _ **Yes, because it's**_ **definitely** _ **that simple to charge through a building full of Rockets to the top and beat whoever's up there.'**_

"No, it won't. I know." I agreed. "But we'll try anyway."

' _ **Well, at least you're not overconfident this time.'**_ Pikachu said, relieved. ' _ **Overconfidence is a slow killer when it comes to this.'**_

"So how do you want to do this? We could try stealthing our way through the rest of it, up three floors, or I can try and keep an illusion shield up while mobile."

"No. No illusion field." Ash told me. "Now's not the time to have you pass out."

"Right. Hard way it is, then." I pushed open the door I was leaning next to. "We'll need to be extremely quiet, but I think we'll be able to make it."

"Sure thing. I'll follow your lead, then."

"Fine with me. Try and keep up." I slipped out, the Aura Adept close on my heels.

* * *

 **Chapter 4.**

* * *

There were several close calls on the way upstairs to the place this Psychic was being kept, two of which forced me to put the illusion shield back into place, to the irritation of Ash. Luckily, the shield didn't take as much power as before, since I was keeping it around just us and I wasn't bothering to hide the presence from anyone. We crept along the halls, careful not to alert anyone that we were here. After getting to the third floor above where we'd been hiding before, I glanced around for anyone who might be nearby, then signaled to Ash to duck into a store cupboard so I could talk.

' _Crystal, anything to say?'_ I asked her telepathically, closing my eyes.

' _From where I see your patterns, there's a room about four to the left of you with the Psychic pattern in.'_

' _And it's definitely_ not _one of the Rocket Elites that we've heard of from Lucia and Lucian?'_

' _You don't think I'd have told you if it was?'_ Crystal's tone was sharp, and I winced.

' _I've no doubt you would have. Speaking of hybrids, what's my brother doing?'_

' _There's a hell of a lot of Rocket grunts outside, so he's currently working his way through them. I expect he'll probably join you two eventually, or he'll wait at the bottom of the tower.'_

' _What'll you do?'_

' _I'll find a way to slip in and transform to help battle if necessary. Don't worry about me. Get moving.'_ I sent back a nod before reopening my eyes. Ash grinned.

"What now?"

"Fourth room on the left from where we are now has our signal. Leo's going army mode on the grunts around the building, so we'll head up to the top. Crystal's going to try and join us if we need to fight."

"Great. Can you feel the pattern we're looking for?" My eyes took on a slightly pink sheen as I quickly glanced around, and I nodded. "Let's go then. Lead the way."

"Fine." I slipped out again, heading straight for the room I could feel the Psychic in, ignoring the slight strain I was dealing with from before. I was careful not to let it show, though; I didn't need Ash to worry about me hurting myself from overstrain. I'd worry about it later, and Crystal would probably yell at me for letting me strain myself past my limits, but that wasn't the problem right now. The current issue was figuring out what was going on with the Rockets and getting them out of Saffron City.

' _ **Alex, you are ok, right?'**_ Spark asked from her perch on my shoulder. ' _ **You look kinda strained.'**_

"I'm fine chick, don't worry." I assured her. "Trust me, I know my own limits when it comes to my powers. It's Amy who doesn't seem to realise when she's starting to strain herself."

' _ **Right.'**_ She recalled, with a little laugh. ' _ **I remember a few times she's overstrained herself psychically.'**_

"Yeah." I allowed myself a moment to gather my senses again, then frowned. "Anyway, let's get this all finished so we can head out." I pushed open the door Crystal had indicated, then immediately shut down any Psychic powers I was using and took a step back.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked, taking a step over.

"There's a lot of Dark typed energy in there. I think it's supposed to stop the Psychic from using their powers to get out. It also means I can't go in, since I'll lose all connection to my power."

"Does that matter? I know you don't need them." Ash was confused, and rightly so. I explained.

"I can, but I'll be so disoriented that it practically doesn't matter."

"I'll go get them, then." Ash smiled. "Just try and keep this area safe."

"That I can do." My eyes flickered, and I put up a sort of illusion field that doubled as a detection field. It was a bit power intensive, but at this point I didn't care. I'd take the time to recover later on; for now, I'd just use my power to cover Ash and deal with the Rockets that were here.

' _ **How come you could feel in there then?'**_ Spark asked.

"It's a sort of trap, so it only focuses on the inside of the room. I'd guess that it's to make sure they can tell if Sabrina's in the room if they have a 'brid on the team."

' _ **Do you think they do?'**_

"I'm going to hope not. I don't have the power to cloak an illusion field from another's senses unless they're vastly less powerful."

' _ **What if there is one though?'**_

"Then I'm just going to hope and pray that we don't run into them."

' _ **That's a fair enough hope.'**_ Spark smiled. ' _ **I suppose I'd better join you on that.'**_

"Sure." I chuckled. "Now, let's just not do something too stupid, and we'll get through this without attracting the attention of the Elites Lucia mentioned."

' _ **Not do something stupid? Us?'**_ Spark laughed. ' _ **You must be joking.'**_

"Alex, you can drop the shield now." Ash told me, leaving the room with Sabrina in tow. "We're good." I relaxed, the duel shield vanishing from the area. "How does that work, anyway?"

"Hell if I know." I shrugged, careful not to knock Spark off. "It just sort of does. Bella could probably explain it, but I sure can't."

"Thank you for coming back here." Sabrina smiled at us both. "Where're the others?"

"Leo's charging the rest of the Rocket grunts outside and around the city with Ky and Cobalt, and Crystal's giving us a bird's eye view." I told her.

"Ah, I see." Sabrina smirked knowing, before saying telepathically, ' _Literally, I assume?'_

"Yep." Ash replied.

"That explains how who found me so quickly. What about Amy and Bella?"

"They've been called back home on some fairly urgent business." I explained.

"Are they ok?" Sabrina asked worriedly.

"I'm sure they are. For now, the ones in trouble are us."

"Right. Any sign of, erm, 'your folk'?" Picking up on her meaning, I shrugged.

"We aren't sure. Crystal's got mostly humans up top, though there's a couple abnormal ones. A Dark and Flying, which could just be a Honchkrow, and a Rock and Dark type. That one seems most likely to be a 'brid, since the only one we know of is Tyranitar, and there's no way this building would be standing if there was one of them up there."

"So, we've concluded that it's either a Pokemon we've never heard of before, or," Ash's voice dropped quiet for a moment. "A hybrid."

"I suppose we should hope it's the former, correct?" Sabrina asked sarcastically.

"It would be massively preferable." I nodded. "Either way, Crystal's going to drop in soon to help, and Leo's staying outside to try and clear the way for an exit, since even if we get the lot up top to clear off, the grunts might hang around."

"Good plan. I should mention, though; one of the ones that was nearby had an odd feel about him."

"Odd?" I cocked my head. "How so?"

"It's hard to describe, but it felt darker than normal. Even in my more… psychotic state from before, I knew how the different patterns felt, and I've only had more practise since then. I've also dealt with Rocket's a few times, and while they felt evil, it was lighter. This person's felt suffocating, like being squeezed in a vice."

"Was it a grunt, do you think?" Ash asked her; I was too busy trading worried glances with both our Electric types to bother.

"I couldn't tell. The strange feeling was too distracting. It's why they managed to capture me in the first place." Sabrina shook her head. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We'll just hope for the best a little more cautiously." I replied. "Maybe I'll be able to get a scan up there for it."

"If you can manage without getting knocked out like I was." Spark and Pikachu leapt down from our shoulders, running down the hall.

' _ **Alex, come on. We've a clear shot up.'**_ Passing the message to Ash with half a thought, the three of us followed.

"Where to, Sabrina?"

"There's an elevator at the end of the right hand corridor. It'll go straight to the top. From there, I think you can just sense your way to them." Setting my face into one of grim determination, I nodded in reply, and started along, heading straight for the elevator.

* * *

Crystal ended up joining us just before we entered that final room, which Sabrina told us was the president's office. She flew up by a window, which Ash opened to let her in.

' _Leo's staying out of this to clear the way for everyone.'_ She said silently. ' _A lot of the grunt's have been cleared out by now, but more just keep filling in out of nowhere. It's like there's a vending machine or something just churning them out to give Leo stuff to do.'_

' _Well, given how many grunts Rocket must have, I'm not surprised.'_ I chuckled. ' _Ready to go?'_

' _My main three are ready, and I've got the backup three ready too.'_ She motioned to the Pokeballs on her belt. ' _What about you three?'_

' _My team's kind of drained from before.'_ Sabrina warned.

' _We're fine, and I think Ash's is too?'_ I glanced at the Adept, who nodded.

' _Well, three full teams should be ok, unless Ash has Blitz on him?'_ He frowned, and a small blue glow flashed over him.

' _Don't.'_ All three of us blinked as the one word message passed us.

' _Good one Ash. Who's instead?'_

' _Zack.'_ I got the impression that he wanted to say more, but the blue glow he was holding died off and he sighed.

' _Fair enough. I'll try and take most of the attacks off of your teams then.'_ Crystal waved us forwards. ' _Let's try and stop them.'_

It turned out that whoever was in there had been expecting us, since he was just finishing his conversation and certainly didn't seem surprised when we stormed in.

"Well, I suppose if we can't come to an agreement, I might as well leave." The figure was encased in shadow, despite it being broad daylight. "Still, it doesn't matter all that much. I only needed the Master Ball for a project of mine, and now I don't need it." The shaded figure turned to a corner, also bathed in a convenient shadow, and asked, "I assume you _do_ have it, don't you?"

"Yes sir." The outline of a person fazed out of the shadow, as though he had been created by it. "Zoroark brought it to me moments ago." His voice was cool and dark, as though he never bothered to force emotions into his voice, as if it were to much effort to even think about giving voice to his feelings.

"Well, there's no reason to stand around here arguing with a person who's clearly too stubborn to help us out." The figure stepped over to a huge window and gestured. "Is Heart here?"

"She's awaiting us now." The other replied. "I sent the alert once Zoroark brought the object to us."

"Good. Shatter us out for her to pick up. And if you don't mind, deal with our new arrivals in your standard method?"

"Very well." The window splintered into shards, which disintegrated on a phantom wind. The outline seemed to look directly at us, and I froze, my breath catching.

This was who Sabrina had spoken of. He seemed surrounded by a pitch black aura, darker than anything I'd ever seen. I wasn't sure if it was visible, but I could feel it either way. I could _see_ it, and even the shadows around him seemed to balk as that dark power flickered. Belatedly, it made it to my mind that that power had shattered the window. "I'll join you after." The one surveyed the other, somehow managing to look at him without reacting to the air of wrongness that surrounded him.

"Do not fail."

"Do I ever?" It changed slightly then, a hint of amusement slipping into that too-smooth voice.

"I suppose not." He agreed begrudgingly. A huge hovercraft drowned out all noise for a few moments, the hatch down to show a cargo area, places where cages would go marked out by barely visible scuff marks and chains dangling from the walls, ready to secure them. Then one strange man was gone, and the remaining shadowed one laughed.

"I hope you have some power in you, or this'll be all too easy." We didn't have much more than a second to process this before the wave hit. The President fainted instantly, thumping against his desk from the effects of the blackness. But the rest of us…

Sabrina was on her knees, holding her head and shaking.

Both Pikachu were curled into little balls.

Crystal's hands were sheathed in ice, her hair looking more like icicles than the naturally ice blue it should be. She hadn't fell, but she was close to.

Ash had almost collapsed as well, hands on his knees and struggling do anything. Aura flared rapidly, as though he was trying to force away the infernal blackness. He seemed to be speaking, or at least trying to, but the rushing in my ears drowned it out as I slipped, finding exactly what was happening to cause this reaction.

 _Panic, as my brother shifted for the first time, without me._

 _Worry, as I got left behind, no power I could claim but an unstable shift I couldn't do alone for fear of an accident._

 _My sisters, leaving to travel in the human world we knew so well, yet so little of. Followed by my cousin, then brother. Left again._

 _Worry fighting with panic and fear, explaining to my team who I was, what I was._

Each of these memories passed through my mind over an eternity, a doom I couldn't escape or fight. Another hit, crackling with malice.

 _Disgust. That's what was written on his face. Disgust and fear, warring with each other._

" _I quit. I'll keep quiet, because you were good friends, but that's it." Dropping his bag and leaving, not even letting us try and explain, try and win back his trust, try and apologise._

" _Stay here with_ your _friends. I don't want you here." His parting words to a partner Pokemon he'd fought to befriend, hatred coating his tone as he spat the words._

Something splintered inside of me. Not rage, but a sort of calm.

"Not real." I whispered. "Yes, it happened. But not like that. I wasn't left behind, and while I worried, I was supported. My powers grew quickly, once I stopped worrying and thought for a second, let myself accept the help. My family left for their own adventures, but I would join them soon, and they'd help me catch them and stay equal." I forced myself upright, the ocean of blackness so deep I couldn't see anything feeling like a void, heavier than the weight of anything I could name. "And Ash didn't hate us. He didn't fear us. He wasn't disgusted. He panicked, shocked beyond rationality for a moment, nothing more. He accepted it, and accepted our help for his own powers, his own gifts." I gasped, as another wave of malice fought against these reminders. Voices echoed, fighting for my attention, but I had an anchor now. I expected it, and I could fight it, now I knew it was there. "None of us did anything like that to each other. What happened happened, and we can't change it. But we'll remember it as it happened, not in this twisted way that brings out the darkest points." Yet another wave, but this one was laced with more panic than malice. "It was bad, but we survived. We won't be trapped by an illusion of the crap that could have been, a thousand times worse." Something shimmered, somewhere. Golden, a small flicker of flame that tried to battle the void of memories. But it was too small to do anything itself, too weak.

So I reached out, physically or mentally I didn't know, and grabbed it. I pulled on it, and blasted out a shield, using that golden flame-like substance as a fuel and support, pushing the shadows away. My shield burned with that same golden shimmer, and the darkness balked, retreating as if it was scared of the flame. I kept pushing, forcing it back, away from my friends and family, even if maintaining a shield now was hurting more than the memories had. I was too drained from before, the shields I'd weaved to keep myself and Ash safe taking a huge toll, and it was showing, weakening the shield. Still I kept it up, holding the flame against the Psychic power I used to get rid of the voices that echoed, that still were trying to take my attention, to freeze me in place with terror. The pulses of the power were more frequent, but less intense, as if the gold was stopping them from reaching us. Taking a gasping, shuddering breath, I pushed with all my strength, forcing the shield and flame at the strange person who'd lingered, the one who'd caused this. I shattered the void he'd made, and left him standing there, gaping.

" _Leave us alone!"_ I couldn't tell if the shout had been my imagination, or if I'd actually spoken, but it frightened him. Another burst of that strange, shadowed fire, and he was gone, the window replaced. I fell now, the shield vanishing as I lost connection, my power spent. The golden flame, now little more than a shimmer of glitter, lingered for a few seconds longer, and vanished in a breath of warm air, like a hug and a smile for a job well done. Distantly, I heard Crystal scramble over to me, and I took just a second to wonder where that glowing fire of hope had come from before the world fell dark.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 5.**

* * *

Pink and gold and blue danced around me, sparkling bands of something. They intertwined, meeting and linking as friends would. I watched them, unmoving, as they flickered and shimmered. Something shuffled behind me, but I didn't spare it a glance. I knew, somehow, that it meant no harm.

" _That wasn't meant to be."_ Whoever it was said quietly, stepping behind me.

" _I know."_ I replied, just as quietly.

" _Are you heading back?"_

" _I might."_ I watched the streams of light flow around me, calm and serene.

" _If you do, I'd like to ask for a request."_ They seemed to take my silence as an invitation to continue. " _Put a stop to that. It wasn't supposed to happen, but I can't step in. Could you do it for me?"_ I contemplated that for a while before replying.

" _I guess. I don't know what I could do, but I have to."_

" _You don't have any obligation to."_ They said quickly, as though trying to amend my belief.

" _Of course I do."_ I scoffed. " _It's the same obligation I have to help Deku's family. I'll go and do what I can, even if it isn't much."_

" _Thank you."_ The shimmering paths converged, making an arch of the three mixed colours. White flickered in the centre, and only now that I wasn't absorbed by the beauty of the lights that I noticed the lack of colour or texture to everything. Looking at it, I couldn't tell if it was black or white or any other colour; it seemed to lack any sort of colour at all. I tried to focus on the arch instead, since looking at the rest of the world made me dizzy. " _Good luck."_ I nodded, stepping through the arch. It was only as I got midway through that I thought to look back, to try and catch a glance of who I'd spoken to. A hazy white figure stood in my vision for a fraction of a second before something tugged at me, sending me falling backwards.

* * *

I blearily opened my eyes, cautious due to what had happened before. After taking a moment to decide that nothing was going to try and kill me the second I woke up more fully, I blinked, trying to clear my sight from the massive blur that it was left in. Someone next to me gasped, and I glanced over.

"Are you ok?" The voice, even speaking softly, cut through my headache, and I winced while I tried to place the voice.

"No." I said distantly. They laughed.

"Yep, back to normal." I flinched again.

"Can you tone it down? Hurts." I groaned, and whoever was there shifted awkwardly.

' _Sorry.'_ This time, it was softer, and I sighed, before noting the one word answer and use of telepathy, along with the accompanying flash of blue light, and finally drew a conclusion to who it was.

"You ok Ash?" I asked him, more worried about how he'd been doing after… _that_.

"I'm perfectly fine." He replied, keeping his voice quiet like I'd asked. "Little drained, honestly, but I'll be back to normal in a few days. Still, that isn't what I asked. What about you?"

"Dizzy." I admitted, sitting up slightly. "I should be ok soon, but I'm still pretty drained."

"Well, that's good." He grinned. "We were all pretty worried. We've had to keep Spark and Ky occupied with your brother's Houndoom."

"Koray's here?" I asked.

"Yeah, Leo called him over when we decided we were coming back into Saffron. It's kinda ironic that we all brought our best teams, and Leo's was the only one who really did a lot of fighting."

"Yeah." I chuckled, my headache receding quickly. "Is everyone else ok?"

"Sabrina recovered pretty fast, and Crystal wasn't ever hurt. My Aura's been on the frisk a bit, but it's calming down. Cobalt thinks it's the effects of being in such a highly Psychic area. Leo took a few hits when he was fighting, but he managed to patch himself up and take out the rest before they could do anything major."

"That's good to know, but it's not entirely what I meant." Awkwardly, my hand drifted to my left arm, unconsciously scratching at a point on it. Ash's good mood deflated.

"The others have all recovered from that pretty fast. Sabrina took it well, despite appearances of the contrary in the office. She's dealing with the President now, due to the effect it had on him. Crystal's better too, though she's been spending the entire time you've been out making laps around the city, like she's trying to find some Team Rocket members to get at. Spark and Pikachu have both been running pretty restless, though she's handling it better than him. I'm not sure why."

"And you?" He forced out a grin.

"I'm fine. I'll be better when my Aura stops being stupid, but I'm good."

"Right." We sat silently for a moment, before I asked another question. "How long have I been out then? If Crystal's going stir crazy…?" I trailed off.

"Three days. Most of that was from overdraw, whatever that means, and exhaustion." He chuckled. "Crystal's been pretty anxious. Good luck dealing with her when she comes in."

"Thanks." I laughed. "Where is she right now?"

"On another of her laps. I'll get Skye to grab her, since she's just outside." He opened a window and waved, the Pidgeotto flying over to him. "Hey girl, can you get Crystal for us? She's flying again."

' _ **Alright.'**_ She nodded. ' _ **I should be able to find her pretty fast. Be right back.'**_ She took off quickly, searching for the little blue Articuno that was flying around the city.

"I asked her to wait around for me, so I could get Crystal when you woke up." He explained, stepping back from the window. "Most of the teams have been running about, trying to make themselves useful, or just training. Skye wasn't really doing too much, mostly talking with Zephyr, but she was happy to help find Crystal."

"Well, I'm just going to hope that Crystal isn't too mad when she gets back." I smiled. "Are you going to leave?"

"I'm getting out of the blast range of the frantic ice bird." He corrected with a grin. "I'll be back when she's left, or when she's calmed down."

"Good play. Tell the others I'm alright for me, ok?"

"Deal." Ash slipped out of the room, quietly closing the door and leaving me alone to wait for Skye. I suppose that I won't be waiting long, though. If Crystal's been in panic mode for the last three days, then honestly Ash has the right idea getting out of here quickly. A panicking Crystal was almost as scary as an angry one, though at least you could tell if she was panicking. When Crystal got too mad, you couldn't tell, so you wouldn't know if you needed to run until it was too late. Comes from being the Ice type of the group, I suppose. Ash's Pidgeotto poked her head through the window.

' _ **Got her. Good luck.'**_ She said quietly, then fluttered off, presumably to find Ash or Zephyr. A little blue blur fluttered after her, barely bigger than a foot tall before she grew to the normal five seven the Articuno species seemed to have as an average, according to the records.

' _ **Alex!'**_ She cried, wrapping her wings around me. ' _ **Are you alright?'**_

"I'm a lot better than I was when I woke up." I told her, returning the hug. "I had to tell Ash to stop talking, 'cause it gave me too bad of a headache."

' _ **Ah, that'll be the overdraw.'**_ She nodded. ' _ **But you're fine now, right?'**_ She asked, looking down at me with concern.

"Yeah. But what about the others? And you, for that matter?"

' _ **I'm fine, aside from the massive bit of panic I had when you didn't wake up. Sabrina's with the President, mostly just dealing with the aftermath of that…**_ **thing** _ **.'**_ She spat the word out, as though we weren't talking about another person. ' _ **Leo's been helping the Chu's cope, along with Koray, and Ash has been doing what he can to get used to Aura in a high Psychic environment, since he thinks it'll be helpful if he gets it sooner.'**_

"What about telepathy?"

' _ **Not sure. I've been sort of occupied with watching over the city to make sure nothing happens while Sabrina's occupied getting everything back in order.'**_

"I'll ask him later. He used that for a bit while my headache cleared up, still only one word though."

' _ **Well that's good. But yeah, the rest of the teams have been kind of restless, but they're coping. They'll be better when they know you're up.'**_

"I think Ash'll be dealing with that." I laughed quietly, still caught in the hug. "I asked him to do that when he headed down."

' _ **Right.'**_ We settled into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before I asked another question.

"Do you have any idea what that thing was?"

' _ **We've got no clue.'**_ Crystal sighed. ' _ **I was thinking about it while patrolling around Saffron. They**_ **looked** _ **human enough, although given us that could just as well mean absolutely nothing. That power is definitely**_ **not** _ **hybrid, though.'**_

"You're sure?" I checked. "It's not just a hybrid ability that we've never heard of?"

' _ **Pretty damn sure. We're not made for doing things like that.'**_ She nudged me gently. ' _ **I'll still be sure to ask Bella next time we see her, but until then, I'm pretty much ninety-nine percent sure that it's no hybrid power.'**_

"So, not hybrid gifts, but unlikely to be human…" I mused. "Can Aura or Psychic gifts get corrupted?"

' _ **Not sure, but we can figure that out.'**_ She hovered upwards again, dropping off the bed and shifting back to human. She stumbled for a moment, then caught herself. "Woooo, forgot what this felt like."

"What do you mean?" I asked, concerned.

"I've basically spent the last three days as an Articuno. If I needed to talk with Ash, I'd just use telepathy, but other than that I've been flying around the city almost the entire time. Honestly, bad decision on my part, but I didn't want to just wait around doing nothing while you were knocked out."

"Well, fair enough." I shrugged, carefully standing up. I wobbled a bit as well, but Crystal grabbed my arm and steadied me. "Thanks."

"No problem. You're going to be worse off than me anyway. That overdraw wasn't kind, even in a high Psychic environment to recharge from. I'd like to remind you not to do that again, by the way."

"Unless we get attacked by that guy again, I'll be doing my best not too." I giggled. "It wasn't fun on my end either, I assure you."

"How bad was it, really?" She asked, lowering her voice. "I've seen bad overdraws before, that's how I identified yours, but even the one from last year only knocked Bel and Amy out for a few hours, and Sabrina a little while longer. How much power did you _use_?"

"To be honest with you, I've no idea." I admitted, just as quietly. "I think it was practically all of it, but I could feel something there supporting me. It's probably the only reason I'm alive." Crystal gave me another hug.

"For Arceus' sake, Alex, don't do that again. Seriously."

"Hey, I'm ok now." I reminded her gently.

"Right." She nodded. "Who do you think it was, anyway?"

"I don't know, but I want to find out so I can thank them profusely."

"Lucia, perhaps?" Crystal suggested.

"Unlikely, unless she was invisible, healing me _and_ holding an undetectable shield around herself all at the same time as resisting that attack." I shook my head. "I don't know what being in Team Rocket's done to them, aside from make them do horrible things and pretend not to care, but I don't think that giving them a ton of power is likely to be one of them." My cousin giggled.

"No, I think you're probably right in that regard. Lucia wasn't that powerful to begin with, or she wasn't the last time I saw her, but she's the healing specialist of the both of them. Latios' in general tend to have a bit more attack oriented, while Latias has a bit more in the defensive side."

"Where'd you learn this?" I asked, impressed.

"You and Bel aren't the only ones who like raiding the library back home." She smiled. "I went looking at some of the legendary recordings that people made before."

"I know we've mentioned it before, but we need to find a way to get Ash over to our home and show him some of these." I told her. "I think he'd find that interesting."

"Let's be honest here, who wouldn't? All that knowledge on legendary Pokemon, all in one place. I think anyone in existence would love that place."

"Yeah, that's true." I laughed. "Imagine if the Professor got into there." We both broke down into laughter as we imagined the reaction Professor Oak would have if he ever found those books on legendaries, so much so that we sat back down on the bed again while we laughed. After about a minute, we got a hold of ourselves and stood up again, still smiling widely.

"Oh dear." Crystal giggled, wiping a few tears from her eyes and putting an arm around my shoulder. "That should not have been so funny."

"No, it really shouldn't have been." I confirmed. "But who cares? It was still good for a laugh."

"Yeah." She sighed, clearing the rest of the tears. "Well, I think we've put it off long enough. Ready to go and greet the team?"

"Sure thing." I sighed as well, clearing the rest of the outburst away in a breath, and together the two of us walked towards the door, trying to contain our fit of giggles to the absolute minimum we could manage. It took a bit more force than it should have, the stress of the… well, for Crystal the past few days, but for me the last time I was awake, finally caught up to us properly. Still, we both managed it, and my cousin lead me over to a staircase.

"Since you probably haven't noticed, we've all been staying here at the gym while we waited for you to wake up." She told me absently. "None of us know that much about overdraws, but we sort of guessed that being in a high Psychic zone would give you a bit of a faster recovery."

"How'd you figure that?"

"Well, I know you like your fairy tales, and I remembered that in those, most magics and psychics tend to use the environment to draw on their powers, as well as their own." She chuckled quietly at some memory I had forgotten. "So I guessed that, since we always seem to do better in high Psychic environments, staying in one would probably help you recover better. Leo's been doing a bit of recovery too, with the amount of fighting he did."

"How'd he do in that?"

"Wiped out most of them. 'Parently he just let Koray and Kydyur run about the field picking Pokemon off while he commanded the rest of his team. Zephyr acted as air support, spotting things in the local area to him that I didn't see. He kept an eye on just about everything there, which is good." She smiled. "I think he picked up a bit more than we'd thought during that little presentation match last week. When I was flying overhead, I happened to notice he was using swords. Not very well, to be honest, but it was pretty good anyway. I think I'll try and teach him at some point."

"I'll join you on that. I know Aura Guardians, when trained enough, can form weapons. Whether or not we can get Ash there is a different matter, but I think we should try and do it anyway." I added.

"Heh, at this rate maybe we should try and train Bella and Amy too." Crystal joked.

"I think Amy'd join. Bella would be too busy reading." I laughed, nudging her. "Then again, Bel's always up for learning something new."

"That's true." Reaching the bottom of the stairs slightly ahead of me, my cousin laid a hand on the door handle. "By the way, brace for impact. They've all been stir crazy waiting for you." With that, my Ice typed cousin gave me a slightly evil grin and pushed open the door, letting me walk in before her. Heading in with only a slight preemptive wince, I made it all of five steps before I was glomped by Ky and Spark. Star and Jade weren't far behind them, but Deku and Mimik hung back.

' _ **Alright you four, get off her.'**_ He chuckled. ' _ **We've all missed her just as much as you have, but there's no need to attack her.'**_

' _ **Sorry Alex.'**_ Spark chuckled, embarrassed. ' _ **We were all really worried about you.'**_

"I know." I returned the smile, patting her gently on the head. "I am sorry about that."

' _ **Please don't do it again, Alex.'**_ Ky begged, circling around me to sit on my shoulder. ' _ **I was worried sick about you.'**_

' _ **Don't act like we were all being spiteful and not caring!'**_ Mimik pouted. ' _ **We were all worried!'**_

' _ **That wasn't what I meant at all!'**_ The Dratini whined. I cut off the upcoming argument with a soft chuckle.

"I know you didn't, chick. Now come here you two." I beckoned the other Pokemon over, and they joined the group hug. "Now, how's everything been the last few days? Aside from you lot worrying about me."

' _ **I ended up babysitting for almost the entire team.'**_ Ky sighed. ' _ **They all got really stir crazy from worry really fast, like the end of the first day when you didn't wake up.'**_ A deep chuckle followed that statement.

' _ **I was babysitting for all of you, along with Cobalt over there, and he was mostly busy helping the young Adept. Don't pretend that just because you're older, you were the one being responsible.'**_ A black and orange face popped into my vision, and the Houndoom smiled. ' _ **It's good to see you again Alex. Wish it could have been in better circumstances.'**_

"It's good to see you too, Koray." With a careful bit of maneuvering, I managed to move out of the hug enough to pat him on the head. "I heard you were helping Leo out in that massive Rocket fight."

' _ **Yeah. They aren't very good trainers, and having Leo and the littler Pokemon distract the grunts didn't help their situation. Me and Ky took them down faster than they could deal damage.'**_

"That's good to hear." I smiled up at him, then at Ky. "You probably stopped them from reinforcing the two at the top of the tower."

' _ **Yeah, we all heard about them.'**_ Deku and Jade both winced, and Star continued quietly. ' _ **Spark explained about what happened when you were knocked out. It sounded horrible.'**_

"It kinda was." I admitted. "The overdraw felt worse."

"If you don't mind me interrupting, what _is_ an overdraw, anyway?" I blinked and looked up to see Ash floating next to me, the rest of the group have vanished. "Crystal didn't know how to explain it."

"It's basically using more power than you have available." I summarized. "When you use these powers, you can't fire all of it. If you do, you'll die, since it's part of you. Instead, there's a certain amount you can use before you'll feel faint. That's what overdraw is. I think what happened with me was that I basically emptied my entire safe reserve before with the shields, so when I tried to shield against whatever that was, I was at the overdraw point almost immediately, so I needed to recover."

"Ouch." He winced. "Can Aura do that too?"

"Yep. Don't worry too much though. So long as you learn the signs and don't use too much over that safe limit, you'll be fine. The more you practise helps too, since it increases your reserves, which gives you longer before you'll hit an overdraw." Belatedly, I realised I was sort of lecturing, and finished with a small giggle. "Woo, started to sound like Bella for a moment there."

"That's fine." Ash laughed as well. "It's good to know that _someone_ in this group has some sense of safety here, or perhaps a sense of the lack of it."

"Hey, all of us have a sense of safety and how we can use our powers without an overdraw." I retorted. "We just don't bother to use it."

"Then do me a favour and do." Ash sat down next to me, and my team swarmed the both of us again. Patting Star on the head, I asked a question.

"So, Crystal said you've been practising Aura while I was out?"

"Yeah, I was." He shifted slightly, holding Mimik. "I figured I might as well try and do something useful with my time rather than worrying about how you were holding up."

"Can you show me then?"

"Sure, I think so." Moving slightly to put my Ditto down, the rest of us moved backwards to give him a little room. Also to get away from a possible explosion, but that's more of a side note. Holding up one hand, the Adept across from me closed his eyes. Slowly, little flickers of a blue, fire-like substance danced across his hand, before solidifying into a blue coat that rose up into the form of a ball with a similar colour to a Water type Judgement. It held steady for about three seconds, before shattering into a blue mist and dissolving into the air. My friend sagged, and I moved over to offer my support.

"Steady now. We don't need you passing out now as well." I joked. He laughed weakly.

"Even still, I doubt I'd be out that long." He informed me. "It's not actually that draining to form it, just holding it steady is."

"I don't see much of a difference, honestly." I said. "It's like with me earlier. Forming the shield was easy, so long as I focused on it. Holding it was a lot harder, and took more force, but it still knocked me out."

"Yeah, but-" He paused, then laughed again. "We're going to be arguing about that for weeks, aren't we?"

"Probably." I confirmed, with my own giggle. "There's no point, is there?"

"The powers aren't that different, actually." He pondered. "I mean, looking at it all now, I can see the similarities between them both."

' _ **Hey, as interesting as this all is, I want to shut you both up now.'**_ Pikachu interrupted, punctuating his statement by jumping up to Ash's shoulder. ' _ **We've spent enough time the last few days thinking about your varying powers and that. Let's go do something!'**_ With a thought, I translated to Ash, the telepathy not straining my reserves at all, to my surprise, and smiled.

"We might be able to move on pretty soon. I'm not that powerful, so it doesn't take long for me to be back at full strength…" I paused in my musings at the shocked look they were giving me. "What?"

"You're _not that powerful_?" Ash asked incredulously. "Then what do you call _that_ performance?"

"An exceptionally stupid move to defend her family and friends." Crystal told him sharply, walking through the door again.

"Thanks Cryst, I needed that." I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, I'm just telling the truth." She laughed. "But it was a good show, I'll admit. She's being honest too, Ash. I've heard of folks back home that could lift mountains with barely a thought."

"What." He said faintly.

"Old families, mostly. Lost track of most the bloodlines nowadays. Don't think any of them even exist anymore, or they're under a different name. I don't care, truthfully. That sort of power worries me."

"Same here." Ash replied under his breath.

"But Alex, if you think you're good to go," She continued, acting as though we hadn't heard him. "We'll get started now." Deku made a small noise, and I smiled at him.

"Sure thing. Where're we going, anyway?"

"Fuchsia City." Crystal held out a hand to each of us, pulling us up. "It's a Poison typed gym there, so get prepared for that." I nodded, glancing over my team, all of which were still outside with us. Then at the duo on my shoulder.

"I think I already know who to pick for this."

' _ **Pass.'**_ Both chorused.

"But… why?" I asked. "Ky, you've been wanting a battle for ages. And Spark, you haven't done much either."

' _ **Yeah, but these aren't that powerful of gyms. I'll do the last one, or something.'**_ Ky clarified.

' _ **Let the others try something else.'**_ Spark suggested. ' _ **Joey and Star don't battle often.'**_

"True, but a Fairy in a Poison gym?" I looked at the little pink Pokemon.

' _ **I can do it!'**_ She said confidently. ' _ **But, maybe teach me how to use Psychic?'**_

"Sure. How about Joey?"

' _ **I'd like some tutoring too, but sure.'**_

"Sounds like a plan. I'll warp you guys a world for you to work in later." Crystal offered, while Ash stood off to the side, watching the scene with polite incomprehension.

"Thanks." I held up the Pokeballs, returning the team again. Koray chuckled.

' _ **I'll help, if you want. Might be good to give some Dark moves to your team.'**_ He glanced upwards. ' _ **Maybe Kydyur will finally take me up on the offer to learn Dark Pulse.'**_

' _ **I'm pretty sure we can't learn that.'**_ She replied.

' _ **Hasn't stopped us before. Didn't your parents teach a Suicune Dragon Pulse?'**_ He smirked while she struggled to find a retort, before resorting to throwing ice in his face. Crystal laughed, patting the dog-like Pokemon on the head.

"You're not winning against her, you know."

' _ **Am too.'**_ He grumbled. ' _ **I'm going to get Leo.'**_

"Say, here's a thought." Ash said, as Koray walked out the door. "Can Crystal control ice, or do you just summon it?" She opened her mouth to respond, paused, then closed it, frowning.

"You know, I don't think we ever thought of that." She swapped a glance with me, as though asking if I remembered something she didn't, but I shook my head.

"I don't think we did." Ky started inhaling, ready to test it, but shut it down at a glare.

"We can test it in a worldlet, little one. For now, let's get ready to move out."

* * *

By the time we'd sorted everything out with Sabrina, said our goodbyes, and gotten away from the city, it was nearly afternoon. I'd woken up almost perfectly at dawn, which was new, but sorting everything out had taken more time than we'd expected. Now we were in the same clearing we had been in a few days ago, when we had gotten Sabrina's message. Koray was back in his Pokeball, since he'd be left behind in the teleport otherwise, and Crystal was ready to teleport the lot of us. We'd had a discussion on the way, and decided to do a quick test with ice when we first got there, then we'd let Ky work with Koray to see if she could learn Dark Pulse for the sake of experimenting while I taught Star to use Psychic, since Crystal had offered to help Joey learn Ice Beam. Leo was going to be working with his whole team, since he wasn't sure who he was using, and Ash was going to alternate between his team and his own work. I had a suspicion that one of his team members wasn't going to be making an appearance, and that suspicion was confirmed when we touched down in a forest of pine, the surrounding area covered in a blizzard that didn't touch the hollow we sat in, and he released everyone but Blitz. The rest of our teams joined them as they looked around, confused, before remembering what we'd told them about hybrids as Leo took a glance around, let his team out, shifted, and dove into the snow in seconds. The rest of our teams had looked to us, before following at my cousin's nod. Ash's team hung around, and Ky slipped down from my shoulder to join Crystal on the other end of the hollow, where no one would get hurt from splash damage.

"Go ahead and play." My friend told them. "I've a bit of work to do first, so have some fun." Holding up a slightly glowing hand for an explanation, his party nodded and went to join the others, Pikachu hanging back a bit to wait for Spark as she ran over. "I didn't know Leo liked the snow so much." He told me.

"To be honest, the only one who doesn't really like winter in general is Bella." I replied, starting to head over to my cousin and closest Pokemon. "Crystal makes the most sense, hating the warm weather, since she's an Ice type and winter born. Amy likes all the seasons, though summer's at the bottom since it's too warm to play in and doesn't have stuff to dive in, although I sometimes think that she only likes spring for her and Bella's birthday. Leo and myself both prefer winter to summer as well, because we can change type, so heat or cold don't bother us that much. We still like winter more, because snowball fights are more fun than water fights," I frowned at a particularly sour memory. "Especially with a lot of hybrids with a Water affinity in some way or another."

"Huh." Ash blinked as he processed the information. "That's… somehow surprising. Bella doesn't like winter?"

"She's a Grass type. Summer and water fights hold more appeal, and as much as we might complain- Crystal the most, since wet feathers make flying a pain- we all join in with those, since she joins the snowball fights in winter."

"It's nearly winter now." He remarked. I cocked my head, but he continued. "I'd like to be able to at least see one of those fights, even if I can't join in."

"We'd find some way to get you in the game. Maybe just have a smaller one in the woods with the hybrids that know who you are and won't care anyway."

"Since you're speaking of winter, any idea if we're heading home for the holidays?" Crystal asked.

"Not sure. We didn't plan to, since the league is in the beginning of autumn and we weren't sure how far along we'd be."

' _ **Also, you didn't know if you'd have told Ash about hybrids.'**_ Ky reminded us, from her position curled up on the side.

"That too." I admitted begrudgingly. "But with five badges and four months or so left, I think we could take some time to stop off home for a week or so. Though, it isn't really our choice to make." I gestured to Ash. "I know you've said you want to see the hybrid world, but I don't want to overwhelm you with the amount of hybrids that'll be in one place."

"I don't mind going there if you want to see family. I'll just need to stay out of Aura Sight the entire time." He smiled.

"Ok then. Might want to sit back a bit, since we're throwing ice around. I'll have a shield up anyway, but for safety's sake…" Ash nodded, sitting down a little ways away, and started his Aura practise.

"Hey Alex, what sort of shield is best for damage that hits a single point?" Crystal asked. I knew it wasn't a question for her sake; she knew more than me, though Leo took the crown for pure power in shields. Still, I answered her as I would if it were a question.

"Point of impact. Good against single hits, not so good at dealing with spread out damage, since it works by having power thrown into the point taking the hit, at the cost of the rest of the shield being slightly weaker." I replied, raising the shield.

"Good to see you still remember this." She looked back at Ky. "Right, we know I can summon ice," She made a floating crystal above her hand. "And with some focus, I can melt it, but I hold it psychically." It fell apart into water, then froze again as a disc. "Refreezing it is easy. I can send it flying, but changing direction uses Psychic power instead. If I throw it, I can melt it, but I lose any control. So, let's start simple." She dropped the shard. "Ice Beam. I'll try to catch it." I braised the shield, mostly covering myself and Ash, since we were directly behind them. A small beam followed Crystal's command, and she frowned, eyes glowing white as she tapped into her power. The beam hit a glassy wall, shattering in and falling apart. The white faded.

"What did you try?" I asked.

"Not that." She answered. "I tried to stop the ice from moving, but summoned a shield instead. Next beam." Another shot followed, and this time was encased in ice before stopping midair. "Ok, I can stop it, but that wasn't how I wanted to do it. I basically encased it and forced it to stop." She split the ice, the small strip from the beam dropping to the floor out of the inch thick ice, which faded to mist. "Next beam." This time, it caught in the air, spinning around before going still. She dropped this one with a smile.

"How'd you do it this time?"

"I just thought of it as my ice." Confusion must have been evident on my face, as my cousin elaborated. "I was thinking of it as Kydyur's ice, her creation, and I think that was stopping me from controlling it. When I form ice, I think of it as _my_ ice, even if it's just water from the air that I froze. I just thought of the ice as mine, then told it to stop flying." I knew that wasn't quite how she did it; we didn't do Judgement like that, though we controlled it the same way Crystal did, but it was a good explanation all the same. It's how I'd describe my control over a Judgement attack when I released it; I could move it sideways psychically, but I could stop it without needing to do that, just thinking. Ky fired a fourth Ice Beam, and Crystal caught that one too, before sending it back and letting her melt it with a weak Flamethrower.

' _ **Here, try this.'**_ She fired a larger Ice attack at Crystal, this one more widespread. It split into five shards, ones that were all aimed to hit the shield and miss her if she couldn't hold them. True enough, she couldn't. She caught two of them and shattered them in the air, letting them fall to the ground as dust. She barely missed a third, and the last three hit the shield. As an impact shield, it held for two hits, but the third shattered it, going towards Ash. Quickly, I started forming a shield around him, just throwing as much raw power as possible without any sort of form. The flare of power made him look up from the dull blue glow, which faded, then flared. My own shield, not fully formed but not exactly weak, fell apart, and a misty blue one formed instead. The ice shard bounced harmlessly off it, and we all stood frozen for a moment as it cracked on the ground. The blue shield faded as quickly as it came, and both of us teleported to Ash a second later.

"Are you ok?" I asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled up at me, before getting trapped in a hug from Ky as she flickered out of an Extreme Speed.

' _ **I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!'**_ She rattled out, tears streaming down her face. ' _ **I thought Crystal could catch them all, and thought Alex's shield would stop them if she couldn't! I didn't think the shield would fail!'**_ I passed her message on telepathically, then joined the hug.

"Hey, calm down." He shifted slightly, freeing his arm to pat her on the head. "I would have appreciated you being a bit more careful, maybe letting Alex have time to strengthen the shield, but you didn't do any harm, so don't worry so much."

' _ **But… But I…'**_ She started talking, before breaking down into tears again. Ash shot me a startled look, and I smiled warmly.

' _She does this sometimes. It's only when something she does puts her family in danger, or those she holds dear, but just give her a minute and she should be fine.'_

' _Calm?'_ The fact that it sounded more like a question made me think about my response.

' _Normally Ky acts like that to make sure people don't worry about her. She tends not to break down much, acting like… not like she doesn't care, but like she's more mature than she is.'_ I explained. ' _We've done little experiments before, like testing how well our Ground typing resists electricity. We didn't have Spark then, and Ky would have been better anyway, not naturally Electric. In my Pokemon form, I was fine, but as a human…'_ I sighed, quietly. ' _She almost knocked me out.'_

' _Hurt?'_

' _Pretty badly.'_ I confirmed. ' _Because I wasn't a Pokemon, the type matchup worked strangely. Even a weak Thunderbolt had too much power behind it, overloading the scrambled immunity and hit me like a truck. I'd borrowed Grace to help me with everything, and she explained what had happened. She'd healed me, made sure I wouldn't die, knocked me out and put me in my room to recover.'_

' _Ky?'_

' _She cried for the rest of the day, wouldn't leave my side for a week, and won't help with any experiment, safe or untested. She blamed herself for putting in too much power, even after Grace assured her that she hadn't put enough power in to hurt me, and something else had happened. Privately, we both thought she'd stop battling, being too afraid to hurt anyone. Instead she trained relentlessly, trying to make sure she'd never hurt someone again. It's possible she'll be a little on edge for a while. She'll be worried about you. She'll come out of it, but…'_ I shrugged slightly. ' _She might well be on edge for longer with you than she was with me.'_

' _Why?'_ I could feel the shock and surprise in the statement, and knew there was more he wanted to say, but couldn't find the power to.

' _Because I'm a hybrid, and you're human. I can shield, send out alarms, defend myself. I'll heal quick in a human form, even if it still takes weeks, but I can bury myself somewhere as a Pokemon and be better in a matter of days, a week at most.'_ I felt my friend stiffen slightly, and continued quickly, still in that hug with my dearest Pokemon crying over an accident. ' _But most humans don't have that chance. They can't defend themselves if a Pokemon attacks, unless they're lucky, or a human with a murderous intent, without skill. They can't send out alarms if they're alone, aren't really able to defend themselves without Pokemon. They heal minor injuries quickly, but broken bones can take months. They can hide away in their homes while they heal, but it doesn't change how quickly they recover. Psychics, Aura Adepts… heck, even those who just have empathy have a little edge. Empaths can sense the danger and avoid it. Psychics and Adepts can shield, signal, fight back. They can't heal themselves faster, but it's more than most get. Ky_ knows _this, I swear she does. She knows you're human, you're 'weaker' than hybrids, anything she does might hurt you badly. But she also knows that you're Adept, and can defend yourself if you need to. But she thought the same thing about me, and spent almost a half hour scared stiff that she'd hurt me too badly, that Grace…'_ I swallowed, but knew I didn't need to finish the thought. ' _Hybrids can heal and resist, but she thought she'd badly injured her best friend because she'd took that for granted. Just now it'd nearly happened again, but to a human, a species that was frailer in most ways than hybrids… It's going to weigh on her for a while, so just give her a bit of time.'_ I glanced down at my friend, still slightly taller than him even when kneeling down. He seemed startled, and I couldn't blame him. "Ky." I said softly. The little purple serpent looked up at me, tears still in her eyes. "Calm down. Ash is fine. Nothing went wrong."

' _ **I just thought… When…'**_

"I know, chick. I know." Carefully, I pried her off of Ash, letting her curl around my neck instead, stroking her head in the same way I had those years back, when Bella and Amy had been out herb hunting across regions with our mother, and Crystal and Leo had been at home with my father, leaving me alone with Grace. Eventually, her tears calmed, and she looked slightly embarrassed as she looked over at Ash.

' _ **Sorry about that. I just-'**_

"I know." He interrupted, stroking her head as well. He caught my eye. ' _Know?'_

' _Who?'_ I knew he was talking about what I'd admitted, about how badly things had once gone.

' _Them.'_

' _Myself, Ky and Grace are the only ones who know.'_ Ash raised an eyebrow, wanting to know why, but I shook my head. ' _Later.'_ He nodded, and we both stood up.

"Should we try and do some stuff with the teams, then?" Crystal asked quietly. I glanced towards the rest of them. They were all still playing in the snow, no one having noticed the turn of events. From the curious look Crystal shot me, I knew she'd been aware of our conversation; not that it was hard, since Ash's hands flashed blue whenever he spoke, but I ignored it.

"Sure." Ky slipped off my arm once again, moving to the side and getting ready to learn, hiding any trace of her tears and worry with a few careful movements. With a thought, I called my chosen two over, along with Ash's team and Leo. Koray went over to Ky, and the rest of them split up and went to a clearer part of the area. As we all started to split off, I sent a silent call. ' _Oh, and Ash?'_

' _Yeah?'_

' _Good shield. I've seen Cobalt make worse ones.'_ With my back turned as I lead Star to a clear spot, I felt more than saw the proud smile Ash was sporting at the complement. And a matching grin found its way onto my own.

* * *

 **AN: I hope everyone enjoyed that.**

 **T: Shadow, what the hell.**

 **SV: What?**

 **P: I think she's questioning the lack of a start and finish AN.**

 **T: Actually, I'm questioning where the creepy end came from, what that start was and why the end has so fluffy. Also explain to the reader why we're late.**

 **SV: In order, the lack of AN's was so I didn't break the pace, I don't really know either, that just wrote itself, you'll find out eventually, and I don't know again. And we're late because we lots internet access for two days, so I couldn't write.**

 **P: And I liked all of those little bits. Alex and the others are all kind of mysterious; they don't really have much of a past that we know about, so it was nice to learn something about their past, and to me it explained a bit about Kydyur.**

 **T: I'd like to know what you learned.**

 **P: Well, she doesn't like Pokeballs, and Alex said that she was always worried she would hurt people. I think she doesn't like Pokeballs because she doesn't want Alex to get hurt.**

 **SV: Well, think what you will. I'm going to drop this here, though. Most of the little things I leave lying around in the fic, things that seem to have no purpose… they're more important than you think. There's two in this chapter. However, they tend to be important very late on. I like having mysteries to solve, picking out little details that don't make sense at the time, hearing things revealed that seem to explain that detail, then having it be wrong at the final reveal, then reading again to look at those details with them making sense. I tend to work them into my writing because of that. There's a list by my desk of silly little things that I have added, of things that seem to make them make sense but don't fit.**

 **T: And good luck finding them all.**

 **P: So leave a review if you think you've found something, and have fun speculating on these thoughts.**

 **SV: I'll see you next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hey everyone! I'm going straight into this chapter with next to no planning to see what comes out!**

 **P: That is a horrible attitude.**

 **SV: Yes it is! But I've got so much stuff to do it doesn't matter to me at the moment, so I'm happy to go on like this.**

 **T: Don't you have a timeplan? Why don't you look at that?**

 **SV: It's not properly updated. I'll fix it later. For now, no Pokemon ownership, go have fun reading!**

* * *

 ***Around six hours later.***

* * *

"Good one Ash!" I smiled. "That's really cool!" He smiled wanly, the blue sphere of Aura vanishing into the air.

"Thanks." He fell back, hitting the snow with a muffled thump. "It's actually pretty nice, being able to do something like that."

"We have Judgement, but no real other things like that, to be honest." I fell next to him, then held up my own hand. A small Judgement, the golden colour the Normal type formed in for us, hovered there for a few moments, then shattered into its own flame.

"Maybe you can do it in the same way I do."

"Which is?"

"Hell if I know." He laughed, and I joined him a minute later. When we stopped, he grinned. "But seriously, I just visualise it as my Aura forming a ball above my hand. Maybe you can do that with Psychic power?"

"It's pretty different to how I do Judgement. That just forms when I want it too. The same for Psychic, Heal Pulse… just about anything, actually."

"I guess that's the nature of Pokemon attacks." Ash guessed. "So, going to try it?"

"Might as well." I stayed lying down, just lifting my hand again and thinking.

 _A pink pool of power, like a well. Looking in, I could see the bottom, but only barely._

" _This isn't normal." I whispered. "Normally it just works. Why is this what I see now?" Nothing was around to answer me, so I shrugged, kneeling by the pool. "Maybe…" I touched the edge, lifting some of the water-like power upwards. It made a little puddle in my hand, and I frowned. "Nope, guess not." I stared at the pink shape for a while, trying to figure out what to do. "It'd help if I knew where this is. Maybe a mindscape? It'd make some sense, since my ability is entering people's mindscapes, so maybe this is mine. Still doesn't help the situation, but I guess…" I looked down at the pool. "Oh, I'm an idiot." Taking a moment to facepalm with my free hand, I dropped the whatever this was back, then scooped some more up and glared at it, imagining it rising into a ball, like my Judgement did. It followed, and I grinned, then frowned. "How do I get out of here? If this is like a mindscape dive, I guess just focus on that…" I did, and sure enough the world around me flickered. Now registering that I was in a world of some sort, and not just by a pool surrounded by nothing, I looked up, still focusing on leaving. I felt a small tug, and felt myself leaving the world, but not before something caught my eye. I blinked, startled, and for a moment stared stunned at the things, completely ignoring the fact that I was disappearing in seconds._

 _Two pedestals. Both white. Both almost identical._

 _The first had the shape of an Arceus on top, purely white, with none of the highlights or colours it normally had. From this distance, it's eyes seemed open, but with the flat white I couldn't tell. The ring on it's back, however, was slightly golden, the only bit of colour there. Even as I watched, however, it faded, just like I was. It was confusing, but at least it had a meaning I could make a guess at. My hybrid ability, mindscape diving. I'd guessed I was using it now, so perhaps it symbolised that._

 _The other, however, was a mystery. It looked like a flame of some kind, the same marble white as the base and other statue. It was a flat, uniform shape, when I'd expected some form of markings where a flame would change colours in a cartoon, since real flames didn't do that and it did look like the shape was one from a cartoon. It was completely dim, and I couldn't tell what it might mean._

 _I only had a few seconds to study them before I faded out of the mindscape, and back into the real world._

Everything snapped back into focus, and I blinked a few times before smiling. A little pink ball of power was floating above my palm, just like it had before. Ash was watching too, and I tried to see if it would move. Instead, it exploded, leaving no trace, knocking us over and blowing some of the snow away. Falling backwards into a deeper part of the snowdrift, we both ended up with snow down our necks and yelped. After a few seconds of frantically trying to get rid of the melting ice, we fell back again, laughing our heads off. I sat up, swapped types with a thought and threw a Fire typed Judgement up into the air, letting it explode before pulling the fire it released around us, melting the snow much faster.

"I'd say thanks, but now I've just got cold water down my back instead of snow, so…" I threw a snowball at him, then used the flame to get rid of the water as well.

"Happy now?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Thank you." He returned my eye roll as I dispelled the flames with another burst of Judgement, this one Water. "Anyway, it worked!"

"It exploded immediately." I corrected. He shrugged.

"Same happened to me. You weren't around, but it was the night we went and sat on the cloud. I just used guesswork to try and figure out how Aura Sphere might work."

"I can remember the amount of holes in that clearing." I grinned. "I also remember something about getting you to skydive?"

"We're going skydiving?" Crystal popped up out of the snowbank. "Sounds like fun! We haven't done it in _ages_!"

"You also mentioned actual diving." Ash said, looking faintly green. "Can we do that instead?"

"Sure, I don't mind doing that either, actually. We don't do it often, and it might be fun!" Crystal was still cheerful, and I smiled.

"It's also safer, honestly. We're less likely to be seen swimming than we are dropping out of the sky."

"Good." He smiled back, sighing in relief. "When'll this be?" Crystal pulled a map from the air, looking at it.

"We're just out of Saffron, and we're heading to Fuchsia, which is near the ocean, so there's there. Or we can pass through Lavender Town, deal with the possibility of ghosts everywhere, and try and do some diving over there." She turned it around, showing us.

"Skip Lavender Town, head to Fuchsia, get the gym badges and then do some diving?" I suggested, glancing between them.

"I'm good with that." Ash nodded.

"Seconded." Leo, still in his Arceus form, dove out of another snowbank and landed next to us.

' _ **Thirded!'**_ He cheered.

"Do you even know what we're talking about?" Crystal asked, exasperated, while I telepathically explained to Ash. "Also, telepathy please."

' _Sorry.'_ My twin replied, in a voice that didn't sound very sorry at all. ' _And we were talking about skipping over Lavender Town and heading straight for Fuchsia so we can do some diving.'_

"...I guess you were listening." Crystal admitted. "So, I guess no one's interested in the ghosts?"

"Nope." Ash shook his head. "Unlike you guys, I can't see them, and I'd appreciate not getting ambushed by invisible Pokemon if I can help it."

"I don't want to get ambushed either, and keeping a Psych Scan open for a long time can be draining." I added. "Because of that, I'm not giving you the recommendation to use Aura Sight. That, and the three of us so close together might cause some problems."

' _I don't like ghosts.'_ Leo said simply.

"Honestly, same here, but I don't mind too much. If we're all sure we don't want to go, I guess we can skip it." Crystal added, to nods all around.

"So, call the teams back and get ready to move on?" I checked. My cousin nodded, and I reached out telepathically to both mine and Ash's teams, since I knew he wouldn't be able to reach them on his own. He smiled at me as Pikachu hopped to his shoulder, while Spark leapt to mine.

"How've things been, you guys?" Ash asked his team. They quickly gave a list of what they'd been doing as I telepathically translated. My own team, knowing I was focusing more on what Ash's group said, stayed silent until Ash returned his team, then gave their own repeat on what they'd done. Mostly playing in the snow, honestly, but that was fine. We'd all been treating this time as more of a playtime than working anyway. Star had been practising Psychic by using it to make snowballs, while Joey had worked on Shadow Ball by using it to knock snowballs away. Ky, despite her insistence that she couldn't learn Dark Pulse, had at least gotten her Dragon Pulse to look a bit less dragon-like. Leo was interviewing his own team as well, while Crystal's had gone straight back into their Pokeballs, since they hadn't been training and as such had nothing to report. Once we'd gotten all that done, it was time to head out of the world, make a little headway to Fuchsia, then find a campground. I sent a quick glance around the frozen forest we were in, and made a mental note to get Crystal to set one of these up again next time we wanted to train. A small flare placed us back in the clearing we'd left about six hours earlier, looking like only a few had passed.

"It's about four now," Crystal announced, coincidentally confirming my thoughts. "So we should have plenty of time to make some headway on getting to our next destination." She started leading the way, with Leo just behind her. I lagged back slightly, next to Ash.

"Is it just me, or does this feel like a waste of time?" Ash glanced at me, confused.

"Pardon?"

"Well, we're going east, to go south, to go back west." I told him, referencing the map from before. "It'd be easier to just go straight south, but that'd involve going through Vermillion, then hoping there's a boat."

"Now you say it, it does sound kind of stupid." He admitted. "Wouldn't that be easier?"

"Assuming there's a boat to Fuchsia. I don't think there is, so we need to go the long way. Or fly, but then we'd need to go really high up to avoid being seen."

"Pass." Ash was going slightly green at the thought, and I laughed.

"We'll get you up there with us at some point, I swear."

"Can we hold it off for a while, please? At least until I'm used to the idea of flying _on_ you, as opposed to _with_ you."

"... Put it that way, and I can see your point. It does sound kind of unsettling."

"You're used to it, though, since you probably used to fly about together all the time."

"Yes, but that was more _with_ than _on_. We've got the largest other form, and Crystal wouldn't be able to carry us anywhere. I was about six the first time we went on a proper flight as a family." Ky coughed.

' _ **It's a great story and all, but shouldn't we hurry up?'**_

' _ **And I'm pretty sure you said to be careful about bringing hybrids up?'**_ Pikachu added. ' _ **You're doing a worse job than I was.'**_

"Fair enough." I nodded. "And sure, we should catch up. Come on, let's go!" I charged ahead, Ash running behind me in an attempt to keep up. Spark held tightly to my shoulder, laughing, and I could hear Pikachu echoing it behind us.

* * *

"Hey Crys?" Leo asked, some time later. We'd been on the road for about an hour now, travelling mostly in silence, with only the occasional telepathic checks from Crystal breaking my reprieve.

"Yes?" She glanced over to him.

"This may be a bad time to ask, but…" He hesitated for a moment. "Do you think we'll run into Lucia and Lucian again?"

"...More than likely." She admitted, after a moment. "I mean, they're Team Rocket, and now they've fought us once they'll be bound to do it again. We've sent that little trio flying quite a few times now, so they definitely know we exist. And since they mentioned Heart before, and we know that's Lucia's code name, so we can assume those two on the tower were Rockets as well." Slow, almost sarcastic, clapping came from the air above us.

"Well done." Lucia said, dropping down into a hover next to us. Crystal schooled her expression into a glassy coldness that I rarely ever saw, and a message passed to each of us.

' _We're heading back to a world. I need to punch them both.'_

' _Right.'_ Me and Leo nodded, shifting subtly in front of Ash, who got the hint and moved behind us.

' _Alex, think you can grab them both?'_ I measured the distance mentally, and noticed that the two were close enough for me to teleport and grab them.

' _Sure. I'll teleport and knock them into you.'_

"So, think you can handle us now, without your more powerful siblings?" Lucian taunted. Both of them flinched at the rage Crystal was faking, as well as the slight shine to the air that showed ice forming around her.

"I'm pretty sure we can, since we don't need to hold back any of our power anymore. Thanks to you, Ash knows, so we can go all out." As the duo traded glances, I teleported, appearing in the air behind them. Acting quicker than I'd expected, Leo formed a shield for me to land on. They instinctively backed away, and I flashed a grin.

"Good luck with Crystal." I pushed them both backwards psychically, into Crystal's waiting hold, before teleporting back. I barely got into the pickup range, and was flashed away with the rest of the group in a teleport.

* * *

We dropped back into that forest again, away from any of the snow. My twin and I put up a small shield around ourselves and Ash, just in case Crystal's acting was too convincing and our friends decided to attack. They scrambled back, but Crystal grabbed them in a Psychic pulse and held them steady, stalking close to them.

' _I get the feeling that this might go south.'_ Leo commented. I could only nod as our cousin walked over to the terrified Elites.

"So, now we can go all out." She purred. "Alex was right to wish you luck." She stepped forwards, then punched Lucia, then Lucian, on the cheek, before dropping them to the ground and hugging them both. "Because the both of you are _prats_." The two in her grip exchanged glances, before their terrified expressions fell away, replaced by relief.

"You read the book?" Lucian asked hesitantly.

"Nope." I called, dropping the shield we were maintaining. "We read the note, though. Bel's got the book at the minute."

"And you're not mad?" Lucia was more hopeful than her brother.

"Oh, I still want to punch you." Crystal assured her. "But now it's not because you're in Team Rocket, it's because you didn't say anything."

"Sorry about that." They finally squirmed free of Crystal's hug, and sat back on the grass. "Why'd you have a shield up?"

"In case Crystal's acting was too good and you actually felt threatened." Leo replied.

"We did."

"Good, that was the intention." She said cheerfully.

"How much of that anger was fake?" Lucia asked.

"...Less than I'd like to admit." Crystal had the grace to look embarrassed. "It wasn't really aimed at you, just Team Rocket in general."

"Well, we've got some time before we need to run back like we got beaten to death, so what's first?"

"Why were you really here? I doubt it's a social visit, since you're Elites."

"Said we were going to try and reclaim 'our' Pokemon." Lucian looked disgusted at the idea. "I'd like to counter that with one of my own. Where _are_ Bella and Amy?"

"Back home, dealing with something to do with Melody." Lucia wilted.

"Oh, you don't think she heard about us being in Team Rocket, did she? Oh, she'll be so worried and disappointed."

"Calm down. I don't think it's that." Crystal assured her. A little pink flower bloomed on the ground for a moment, then wilted. Dawning looks of realisation appeared on both Lati's faces, and Lucia gasped.

"I can't believe I'd forgotten! I'm such a horrible friend…"

"No, you've just been busy." She replied. "Trust me, we all forget things when we've been caught up in other things."

"I suppose…" The Latias was still upset, so her brother took over.

"Anything else you want to know?"

"There's someone in your group who is evil." Crystal's voice once again had that sharpened tone. "Can you tell us who it is?"

"...Probably." He shuffled slightly. "What did they do?" Instead of a reply, Crystal just showed them telepathically. From the way they flinched back, the memory probably included all of the anger and bad thoughts that person had left us with. "Oh. _Him_." Given the amount of rage she spat it with, it was clear that Lucia didn't think highly of whoever this was.

"Yep. Who was that? And what the hell was it?"

"Oblivion." He replied. "He doesn't seem to have a name, or not one he uses. I'm pretty sure that the only reason he doesn't call himself death is because death is more merciful than what he can do. He's a hybrid, but we've never seen him transform. The only reason we know he is one is because he has the pattern of one."

"What sort of pattern?"

"We don't know. That black field doesn't let us. It has blue in it, sometimes, but that's it. Hell, even his brothers don't talk much about him, and he's never said a word to us."

"I remember Oblivion, actually." Ash said. "It was in the note that you left with the book."

"Right." Leo nodded. "There was Wrath and Cross as well."

"Yeah. They're triplets. None of the others have ever transformed around us, unfortunately, so we can't say much else."

"What about the power he used?"

"Shadows." Lucian replied simply. "We don't know how it works, and I'm not sure we want to."

"So, the same thing that's affected Ivysaur and Eevee?" I asked, to nods.

"We don't know how it works, since it's not supposed to affect humans aside from a bit of pressure if the Shadow Pokemon is powerful enough, but if a hybrid can be changed…" He trailed off, letting the implications finish the sentence.

"Is it because he's a hybrid, you think?" Ash questioned. "Since there's a Pokemon half, you could affect that and it causes it to stick around."

"...Maybe." Lucian nodded. "I'm not certain, and I honestly don't ever want to be."

"Well if it is like that, stay safe." Crystal ordered. "I don't want to actually lose you to something."

"I promise we won't." Lucia confirmed. "There's some other stuff as well, but I'd like to tell Bella directly and we can't right now."

"When she gets back, I'll be sure to let her know about everything that's happened here, and tell her you wanted to meet up again. Hopefully you can get here without suspicion."

"We don't technically get orders," Lucia said. "So we could just wander off at any time and tell them to call us if they need us, and hope they don't need us."

"Alright. Should we do anything, or…?"

"Nah, we'll say we got beat and pretend we healed at a Pokemon Center or something before we came back. We can deal with that much." Lucian told her. "Sorry about everything, and we'll see you around."

"Alright." A flare of pink followed, teleporting us out of the world again. The Lati duo fell back into their Team Rocket persona's, and glared.

"You may have beaten us this time, but next time we meet, you _will_ lose!" Lucia flew away with her jetpack, her older brother just behind. Crystal gave a small sigh, and the rest of us calmed down as well.

"So then, I take it we have a problem?" Ash asked.

"One hell of a problem." I confirmed. "If Shadow Pokemon can be made from hybrids, and we don't know how any of this works, or if we can reverse it if it happens to anyone."

"Bella really needs to know about this." Leo said.

"But she and Amy have enough to deal with trying to look after Melody." Crystal argued. "We'll wait for her to get back, then we can tell her about all of this."

"What even is it with this Melody person?" Ash asked. "Why're Bella and Amy with her?"

"She's another hybrid, a Meloetta. She's a talent for singing, and playing instruments. We actually heard the Lugia's Song from her for the first time."

"Lugia's Song?" He pondered that for a moment, then nodded. "That thing that Lillian and Lucas sang when they left in the Pokemon forms, right?"

"That's right. Well… she had a sister. A Shaymin hybrid, actually. I'm now going to put the emphasis on the word _had_ and leave this line of conversation standing while we walk." Crystal turned on her heel and started walking again, heading for Lavender Town, since we'd still need to pass through it to get to Fuchsia.

"So…" Ash looked stunned, and I nodded.

"Now, Crystal's probably got the right idea in dropping this line of conversation off a cliff to see where it lands, so let's get a move on." I replied, hurrying after my cousin with the two boys and our Pokemon in tow.

* * *

"Geez, this place really takes the phrase 'ghost town' literally." Leo remarked, looking over Lavender.

"Well, considering that this place is actually really haunted, it makes sense." Crystal explained, glancing back. "Most of the people that used to live here moved away, since they started getting bothered by the Ghosts."

"Are they really that annoying?" Ash asked, peering into the city as if he could see the Ghosts floating about the place.

"Some of them can be, but a good number of them just want to live peacefully. We were here before, and had a chat with them. They're actually not all that bad, some fairly nice Ghosts. Marionette liked it here, spent quite a bit of time learning from some of the locals."

"Marionette?"

"Amy's Banette. She was using her in the battle at Porta Vista, when we were trying to deal with the massive Tentacruel. You must have missed her." She answered. "Maybe we could just stop by and see if any of them are around. They'll recognise me."

"Sure." I nodded my consent. "It's not like we're on that much of a time constraint, at least not anymore." Ash smiled, and the seven of us headed down the hill into the mostly abandoned city.

 **/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

We carefully walked into the Tower, cautious not to disturb anything. Crystal immediately flickered into a Psych Scan, looking for Ghosts.

"Ash, this may be a good time to try out Aura Sight more." I whispered, looking around myself. "Just be careful when looking at us."

"Right." His eyes took on a blue tinge, and he used his Aura Sight to look around as well, pointedly keeping himself from glancing anywhere near us.

"What're we looking for, Crystal?" Leo asked.

"There was a Haunter duo that ended up meeting Marionette, so I'm just going to see if I find a pair of Haunter to ask."

' _ **No need…'**_ The air whispered. ' _ **We're right here!'**_ Two Haunter materialised in front of us, and Crystal grinned.

"Hello you two. As cheerful as ever, I see."

' _ **Yep!'**_ The left one smiled. ' _ **After all-'**_

' _ **-We're the Towers pranksters!'**_ The right one finished. I noticed that the first one sounded male, while the second was female. ' _ **So how's-'**_

' _ **-Our best friend?'**_

"Marionette's fine. She's not here at the moment, though. Amy had to head back home, so she went back as well."

' _ **That's a shame.'**_ The male sighed. ' _ **I was-'**_

' _ **Hoping to see our fellow prankster.'**_ I finished translating to Ash, then spoke.

"Do you always trade lines?"

' _ **Of course!'**_ She replied. ' _ **After all-'**_

' _ **It's our thing!'**_ He floated over to us. ' _ **So, who-'**_

' _ **Might you be?'**_ The other joined us.

"I'm Alex, that's my twin Leo, and Amy's our older sister." I waved to them. "That's Ash and Pikachu, and this is Spark and Kydyur." Each of them waved in turn.

' _ **I suppose we should introduce ourselves too. I'm Spectre-'**_

' _ **And I'm Spooks!'**_ Spooks waved back, while her brother went to Crystal.

' _ **So how've you been Crystal?-'**_

' _ **-You look well.'**_ She chuckled.

"I'm fine. Have you been ok?"

' _ **Yep. Not many people-'**_

' _ **Around to prank, but that's-'**_

' _ **Ok. We'll just prank our-'**_

' _ **-Fellow Ghosts instead!'**_ The duo traded off lines perfectly, as if it had been rehearsed, and I had to follow along quickly with my telepathy to translate it to Ash properly.

"I hope you haven't been causing too much trouble."

' _ **Of course-'**_

' _ **-We haven't!'**_ Spooks actually sounded offended. ' _ **We don't-'**_

' _ **-Like causing problems!'**_ Spectre said. ' _ **We just-'**_

' _ **-Want to have fun!'**_

"So long as you haven't been too much of an issue, then that's fine." Crystal relaxed, as did the Ghosts.

' _ **Thank you. So what-'**_

' _ **-Brings you here today?'**_

"We were just passing through here on the way to Fuchsia City and I thought I'd drop by to see you." Crystal replied.

' _ **Fuchsia? Would you mind-'**_

' _ **-If we came along?'**_ Spectre asked. ' _ **We don't-'**_

' _ **-Really get out much.'**_ I traded a glance with Ash, then Leo. Both boys nodded, then stepped forwards.

"We could catch you, if you want." Leo offered. "It'd make it easier to get around." Spectre and Spooks traded startled glances, and for a second I thought they might refuse, but then they nodded.

' _ **Sure! It sounds like-'**_

' _ **-It'd be fun to explore-'**_

' _ **-Outside the city for once!'**_ Spooks went over to Ash, while her brother went over to Leo. ' _ **Let's go-'**_

' _ **Crystal's folks!'**_ Both of them tapped an outheld Pokeball from the two boys and let themselves be caught. The balls shimmered for a moment, then vanished, heading back to Professor Oak's lab.

"We'll need to drop in at a Pokemon Center to get them back from the Professor." Crystal reminded us. "Still, Marionette will be happy with this."

"Yeah, she will." I smiled. "So, is the Center here still in use, or…?"

"It's still working. We'll get them now, then head to Fuchsia and explain to them everything on the way." Crystal pushed open the door psychically, letting me slip out, followed by Leo and Ash.

"Say, here's a thought," Ash said, as Crystal left and shut the door behind us. "How come Spooks and Spectre weren't surprised that you understood them, on that first time?"

"Marionette just told them it was a family gift of ours." The Articuno grinned, leading the way to the Pokemon Center. "Gotta admit, she wasn't exactly lying, was she?" She laughed, and the rest of us joined in as we walked.

* * *

 **AN: And we're done here!**

 **P: I was beginning to think that this was a filler chapter.**

 **SV: It sort of was, honestly. At first, I wasn't sure what to do with the chapter, since it's a little weird in placement. We're actually getting sort of close to a few of the main events, and I've been starting to wonder if this was even going to be all that long of a fic. I mean, three gyms and a League, sure, that'll take a while, the League will probably be three battles a chapter until someone gets knocked out, but I wasn't sure. Then I've recently been expanding some of the chapter lengths-**

 **T: *Glancing at Guardians or Power.* That's true.**

 **SV: -And I've realised it might be, depending on how long certain events take.**

 **P: I'm sure it'll be ok anyway, Shadow. Now, I don't think there's anything to alert the readers of in this chapter, is there?**

 **SV: Nope, for once I tried to keep away from cryptic references. There's the thing with Melody, and-**

 **T: Creepy shadow guy from Silph Co has a name, sorta!**

 **P: So there are some things in this to guess at, but not much.**

 **SV: So, we'll say our goodbyes, wish you a happy easter 'cause that's this weekend, assuming you celebrate it, and see you around!**


	5. Announcement

Hey team, ShadowVulpix here!

Man, spring seems to just screw with my mental state. I hate doing this again, but I swear that new years and spring mess with my head. Sorry to say that I'm taking a hiatus. I know, after all the waits you guys go through, the only thing I give you is more. Please let me explain before you go on an angry review spree.

The main reason I'm doing this is because I've been pretty demotivated recently. I despise it, since it's spread to my schoolwork too, but things happen. Things got very stressful very fast, and I need a break from being pulled in a thousand directions at once to focus. Giving myself a break from writing at a hurried pace will help, I hope, and it should give me time to work properly.

In the next few months, I've got a ton of exams coming, and in June I'm heading off to Germany for a week. It's not a long trip, but it'll be a week away from the computer and unable to write, and I don't want to have to force out chapters. For the most part, the break is to give myself time to focus, plan ahead, and get through everything else going on. I'll get some chapters backed up and ready, hopefully good ones, and I'll be able to keep quality high without needing another break too soon.

Another point is that I'll be taking some time to rewrite some of the original New Beginnings chapters. Even though it was only a year and a half ago, I cringe at my writing from before and I need to fix it. Nothing major to be changed, mostly, but it's to get that fic to the standard the newest chapters of everything else are working at.

For a bit of good news, I can say that when summer comes around, I'll be able to try and get more chapters out, since I'll be on break and have more time to write. Of course, sometimes holidays cause me to procrastinate everything, but I'm doing my damndest to get out of the slump and back to work.

The main issue has been the side projects I'm working on. One of my problems in writing is that I sometimes get to a point where I have an idea for later in the fic, and I have to write them out now or I'll get into trouble later. One example of this is the mentioned 32,000 word 'chapter' that I wrote out in two weeks during March/April. I'm not saying anything, but that was part of the reason everything was late last month. I honestly shouldn't make excuses, but I wanted to tell you guys that.

Drawing a bit away from the announcements and into more general stuff, I recently got slightly obsessed with Naruto, and... might have started work on a little project that might get uploaded someday. Keep those hopes down, three stories is bad enough, but it will come, and I will not let it drain my workload.

Onto current story related stuff, there's a poll about Child of Mew, giving Misty a Dewpider. Originally, the plan was a Surskit, but with Sun and Moon giving a Bug/Water type that stayed Bug/Water I couldn't help but change it. If no wins, however, I'll leave her with a Surskit. Maybe I'll move Dewpider to Guardians, if it's close enough. There's a ton of plot stuff going down in both Guardians and Second Start, while Child of Mew is getting there much slower, mostly because of the organisation I have for it. Hopefully the filler style stuff won't bore you to death before the fun starts. I promise, it _will_ get fun.

Other than that, I think that's it. If there's any questions about what's happening, leave a review or PM me, and I'll PM you back a response, assuming I can without giving things away. I'll likely see you back in July, maybe August at a push, but I'll do my best to make it worth the wait. Again, sorry about the break, and I'll see you all then.

Shadow.


	6. Update!

Hey again guys.

Right, first off, the updates. I've done very little writing over the past few months, due to a lack of time from exams and spending some time without a stable internet connection. Because of this, updates might not come for a while.

Starting in September, updates for everything will be sporadic at best, since I'll be starting my last year of the GCSE course, and will be spending a lot of time focusing on that. I'm very sorry about this fact, but school work has to come first in this case. Suffice to say that I won't be abandoning any of my stories, but all updates will be slow. You might not get an update for Child of Mew for a while, but get two for Guardians of Power, for example. It'll depend on my mood and how much spare time I have.

Again, I'm very sorry about this, but it has to be done.

Sincerely, ShadowVulpix.


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